January 15, 2026 10:13 AM UTC

‘Verified With My Own Eyes’- Evans Supports 100% of ICE Arrests in CO

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Seriously? Every…single…one? — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally posted at the Colorado Times Recorder

Congressman Gabe Evans (R-CO) has doubled down on the claim that every person currently detained by ICE in Colorado deserves to be behind bars. He made his most recent statement Monday in an interview with Nexstar reporter Vinay Simlot, repeating an assertion he first made over the summer.

Last July, following multiple reports of ICE agents in Colorado arresting law-abiding immigrants,  Evans told a conservative podcaster that he had met with local ICE officials who had broken down the numbers of prisoners for him and explained that all of them had either pending criminal cases (60%), final orders of deportation (25%), or were a flight risk or threat to public safety (10%). At the time, his office clarified to the Colorado Times Recorder that he was simply relating what ICE officials had told him.

This week, however, Evans repeated that numerical breakdown (with very small changes in the percentages), but now he says that he has “verified the numbers with [his] own eyes.” Asked by Simlot about the numerous reports of ICE arresting non-criminals, Evans defended 100% of ICE’s detention decisions, stating that every prisoner falls into one of the same three categories listed above.

Vinay Simlot: There have been reports with these ICE arrests and immigration raids about workplace raids or people who are not criminals being arrested by ICE. Do you think that has hurt the public support for immigration enforcement?

Evans: “Right, I’m a representative that’s got about 725,000 people and a lot of them had that same question for me. And so I did what a good representative does. I did what good cop does, or a good military officer. I go and I see firsthand — boots on the ground with my own eyes — what’s happening. So I’ve been to the ICE facility in the Denver area a couple of times. And I asked those exact same questions. ‘Who are you arresting, who are you holding, who’s in detention right now?’

“Here’s the numbers that I verified with my own eyes through personal, boots-on-the-ground visits to the ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado. Just under 70%, I think it was like 67, 68% of the people that are in detention are either people with criminal backgrounds or they’re people that are going through the criminal justice process. They came into the country illegally, they committed a crime, that’s the first contact that they’ve had with the U.S. government so they don’t have a criminal background. But the reason they’re in ICE custody is because they were arrested, you know, for instance, at one of these Tren de Agua takedowns where they were, you now, they were in there with the drugs, with the prostitution, with guns, but they don’t have a criminal record because that’s their first contact with us. So just under 70% of the people in ICE detention fall into that category. Of your remaining 30, 33%, about two thirds of that are folks that have what’s called a final order of removal. And so that’s somebody that’s in the country illegally. They’ve been going through the immigration courts and a federal judge has looked at all of the evidence and said, ‘Nope, unfortunately, you got to get out. So I’m signing an order of removal for you.’

“The remaining of the remaining population, two thirds of them have a signed order by a federal judge saying you need to be removed. They’re just being held until they can be removed. Your final — it’s about 10% of the total population. It’s only about 10% that doesn’t fall into one of those two categories. That 10% are folks where there’s just an elevated flight risk.

“This is the exact same process that we used when I was a cop and I arrested somebody and you have to decide, am I gonna arrest somebody, take fingerprints, photographs, give them a ticket and a court date and let them go? Or am I going to arrest somebody, take fingerprints, photographs, and then I evaluate that they’re either a flight risk or a danger to the public, and so then I’m going to hold them in jail until they can post a bond. ICE goes through the exact same process. The final 10% of people in ICE detention in Aurora fall into that category. Same process we use for citizens, which is they’re an evaluated flight risk, or a risk to the community.”

Simlot: “So you’re comfortable with the numbers and what you’ve seen in those ICE detention centers?”

Evans: “As long as the focus stays on what we’ve been saying is, ‘gangsters, not grandmas.’”

Simlot: “And you think that that is the focus of this administration?”

Evans: “I mean, I can’t speak to the whole country, but I know what I’ve seen in the Denver, Colorado area.”

Evans’ office did not respond to an email request for specifics about when he visited the Aurora ICE facility and whether he actually spoke with any detainees. This article will be updated with any response received.