Poll: How Colorado voters feel about the influx of migrants
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Colorado voters agree that immigration is a top concern, but they're split on solutions to solve it, according to the second installment of a bipartisan poll released Thursday.
The big picture: 62% of the 632 likely voters surveyed last month by the independent Colorado Polling Institute say the recent influx of migrants from the southern U.S. border is a "crisis" or "major problem."
- Voters largely blame Congress (43%) and the Biden administration (41%) for a lack of border security that has spurred the arrival of more than 40,000 people in Denver since January 2023.
- But nearly a third of voters point the finger at Denver for its own welcoming policies.
Why it matters: The public's perception appears at least in part to be influencing Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's administration.
- His immigration strategy has recently shifted to encouraging "onward travel" for migrants "a lot more heavily," his spokesperson Jordan Fuja tells us, with the city closing all but one hotel shelter for migrants instead of only four as previously planned.
Friction point: There's a deep-seated divide when it comes to the approach participants think local leaders should take to address the issue.
- 51% say Colorado's resources are being "overwhelmed" by new immigrants — and they need to be turned away.
- 49% say they should be met with compassion and are simply here looking for work and better lives.
Between the lines: There are "massive demographic and political gaps under the surface," Democratic pollster Kevin Ingham of Aspect Strategic said in a statement.
- For example, 80% of voters who regularly attend religious services want to turn new arrivals away compared to 73% who don't attend regularly and prefer treating them with a gentler approach.
- Also "surprising," Ingham noted, is that voters of color prefer turning migrants away by a 17-point margin, whereas their white counterparts lean towards showing compassion by a narrow 1-point margin.
The bottom line: Two-thirds of voters say different races, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds make the state stronger — "so there's a complicated story here," Ingham told reporters ahead of the poll's release.
- "Coloradans are a welcoming bunch … but many of us are also looking at the migration situation with concern — including in the more liberal-leaning Denver metro region, where there (are) higher levels" of unease, he said.