July 14, 2025 09:00 AM UTC

Colorado Congressman Defends ICE’s Claims That 100% of Deportations & Detentions Are Justified

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(What about the grandmas, Gabe? — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally posted at the Colorado Times Recorder

Congressman Gabe Evans says 100% of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) deportations and detentions in Colorado — even of people without any criminal charges or deportation order — are correct and justified.  He says he knows this because he met with ICE officials last month and they broke down the numbers for him — numbers that add up to 100%.

He shared these numbers with right-wing podcast host Andrew Wilkow during a June 24 interview.

“Going back to the deportations,” said Evans on the show. “I recently sat down with my ICE folks in Colorado and asked them. And they told me, well, it’s about 60% people illegally present in the United States with either criminal convictions or pending criminal cases. Twenty-five percent of the folks are folks that have a final order of deportation. So they’ve already gone through the whole due process, immigration court system. They’ve been told by a federal judge, ‘We’ve evaluated your claim. No, sorry, not asylum. Time to leave.’

“And then you get about 15% of people that are going through the immigration process. They do have a potential path to deportation, they just — the immigration proceedings. And they are either a flight risk or a public safety threat. And so they’re being detained pending the conclusion of that immigration case, the same as we would do with any U.S. citizen — the same thing I did as a cop for ten years.

“If somebody is a public safety risk or a flight risk, you have the ability to hold U.S. citizens pending the conclusion of that immigration — excuse me, of that court case. So, again, these are the folks that ICE is going after. It’s a public safety oriented priority. And once again, the left is just crying wolf at every possible opportunity.”

The interview took place two weeks after Evans joined five other congressional Republicans who sent a letter to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons expressing concern that the agency was pursuing at least some “individuals that do not constitute an immediate threat to public safety.”

Soon after, according to Evans, he met with Colorado ICE officials, whom he says provided the 60-25-15 percent category breakdown.

That answer apparently satisfied his concerns, despite multiple reports of ICE arresting and detaining non-criminal immigrants, including a family with an infant as they attended their ongoing immigration hearing. Other detentions have been based on nothing more than appearance, accent, or country of birth. That list includes Utah University student Caroline Dias Goncalves, who was detained by ICE in Grand Junction, Colorado, after being initially stopped for a traffic violation. The teenager, who’s lived in the United States since she was seven and has no criminal record, but does have both a work permit and a Social Security number as her parents’ 2022 asylum application is reviewed, was imprisoned for over two weeks at ICE’s Aurora facility.

Asked whether Evans believes Conclaves to be a flight risk or a public safety risk, the only two categories under which she could be classified according to ICE’s target matrix, a spokesperson for Evans declined to comment and directed questions about specific arrests to ICE.

The Denver ICE office did not respond to an email request for comment on its meeting with Evans and its details about its targeting categories. This article will be updated with any response received.

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC) disputed Evans’ numbers.

“Congressman Evans’ claim that 100% of ICE detentions in Colorado are justified simply doesn’t reflect the reality on the ground,” says CIRC spokesperson Raquel Lane-Arellano. “We routinely see people who are legal permanent residents, DACA recipients, or asylum seekers — who are following the legal process — detained without cause or transparency.

“Where is his data coming from? ICE does not release public, verifiable detention data by state. In fact, national data from TRAC Immigration shows that over 70% of people arrested by ICE in 2023 had no criminal convictions. According to the Cato Institute, most people in ICE custody are there for civil — not criminal —immigration violations, with 65% having no convictions and over 93% having no violent convictions.

“The idea that every person detained by ICE is a ‘public safety threat’ is simply false. These sweeping claims erase the real harm caused when families are separated and long-time community members are locked up while seeking safety or waiting for their hearings. Colorado deserves facts—not fear-based justifications—for a deeply flawed detention system.”