(C) Colorado Newsline This story was originally published by Colorado Newsline and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Support for Trump's 'mass deportations' promised by Colorado 4th District GOP hopefuls • Colorado Newsline [1] ['Chase Woodruff', 'Quentin Young', 'Sara Wilson', 'Lindsey Toomer', 'Newsline Staff', 'More From Author', '- May', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus'] Date: 2024-05-30 The Republicans running to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District on Thursday broadly expressed willingness to support presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants — even as they ducked questions about the specifics of carrying out such a program and repeated false claims about a link between immigration and crime. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has moved across the state and switched to the 4th District race after nearly losing her 2022 bid for reelection in the 3rd District, which she still represents, described the entry of migrants from Central and South America, many of whom are refugees lawfully seeking asylum, as an “invasion,” echoing Trump’s rhetoric. “We need President Trump back in office to ultimately see this through,” Boebert said during a debate hosted by 9News. “But I take this so seriously that I led the charge to impeach Joe Biden for his dereliction of duty at the southern border.” The winner of the June 25 Republican primary in the 4th District will be heavily favored to win election in November to the seat previously held by former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who resigned from office in March. Before then, the district, which encompasses Douglas County and much of Colorado’s Eastern Plains, will be represented by the winner of a special election, also on June 25, contested by Democrat Trisha Calvarese and Republican Greg Lopez, a self-described placeholder candidate. Running against Boebert in the 4th District GOP primary are former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a 16-year statehouse veteran who has been endorsed by many Republican insiders; state Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron; state Rep. Mike Lynch of Wellington; Deborah Flora, a conservative talk radio host; and Peter Yu, a finance and mortgage consultant. All six candidates indicated through a show of hands at the start of Thursday’s debate that they would continue to support Trump, who was hours earlier convicted by a New York jury on 34 felony fraud charges related to a scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn star. Trump has vowed that on the first day of his second presidential term he would “begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” and laid out plans in an April interview with Time magazine to use local police departments and the U.S. military to carry out his program. Trump has frequently compared the scope of his plans to a 1954 U.S. government operation named after a racial slur for Mexican-Americans, which deported an estimated 1.1 million people to Mexico. The crackdown resulted in conditions on trains, trucks and cargo ships that a later congressional investigation likened to “slave ships” and led to the deaths of at least 88 deportees. Boebert and other Republican hopefuls mostly declined during Thursday’s debate to offer detailed plans for how such a mass deportation effort would be carried out in Colorado communities. “Bringing in out-of-state national guardsmen or the U.S. military in Douglas County — do you feel like that would work?” moderator Kyle Clark asked Flora. “Not into Douglas County. That’s not what I’m talking about,” Flora said. “What I mentioned is to secure our border — that is what is required.” “When it comes right down to it, (the) mass deportation that I’m talking about is shipping the ones that have been bused into Denver, busing them back out,” said Sonnenberg. “Absolutely, I would use the police, I would use the National Guard.” The number of undocumented immigrants in Colorado was estimated at 190,000 by the American Immigration Council in 2020. The number has likely grown recently with the arrival of over 40,000 new migrants in Denver since December 2022, although city officials say that roughly half have moved on to other cities and that the influx has slowed dramatically in recent months. Sonnenberg baselessly claimed that those recently arrived migrants “aren’t the ones working” and instead “are the ones causing the crime to go up in Denver in the area around.” Decades of research has shown that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, are far less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S. — and rates of violent and property crimes in the Denver area have in fact been on a sustained decline since late 2022, when unusually high numbers of migrants began arriving. Boebert’s electability Boebert sent shockwaves through Colorado politics when she announced her district switch in late December, amid mounting fears that she would lose a rematch with Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in the 3rd District. Frisch, who shattered fundraising records while campaigning against the nationally-known and highly controversial Boebert, came just 546 votes short of victory in the 2022 race. The 4th District is Colorado’s most conservative congressional district, with 58% of voters in the district having backed Trump in the 2020 election, compared to 39.5% for Biden. But a majority of Boebert’s opponents said Thursday night that they feared that nominating her could imperil Republicans’ chances of holding the seat. “I do think it is vulnerable. I think the day (when that would) never happen in Colorado is long gone,” Flora said. “And I think it’s time that we have someone in this seat — which is one of the reasons why I’m running — where we can rebuild the party, where we can make it the big tent again.” “We just want people who are elected who actually represent our values,” Boebert replied. “I do not believe that I will make this seat vulnerable. This is a Republican district, and they want a Republican who has a 100% conservative voting record, as I do.” Boebert, who has been endorsed by House Republican leadership and enjoys a substantial fundraising advantage over her rivals, was the frequent target of attacks throughout the debate. Lynch, while responding to a question about his 2022 drunk driving arrest — the revelation of which earlier this year led to his ouster as House minority leader — made an oblique reference to “theater incidents or anything else that was embarrassing to folks.” Boebert made national headlines last year when she and a companion were escorted out of Denver’s Buell Theatre after patrons complained that they were vaping and causing a disturbance. “I owned up to my night out in Denver, and you know, I’ve gone on that public apology tour,” she said Thursday night. “I’m grateful for the mercy and grace that has been shown.” Holtorf doubled down on comments he made earlier this month when he told a conservative radio host that Boebert dresses like a sex worker. “I raised five daughters,” Holtorf said during the debate. “And I’ll tell you what, women in my humble opinion, particularly if they’re a congresswoman, need to dress respectfully and professionally.” Holtorf was responding to questions about his history of controversial comments, including referring to a Black colleague at the Legislature as “Buckwheat,” and telling another lawmaker, whose son was killed in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, “You have to let go.” “Most people know that I’m a straight, no-nonsense conservative,” Holtorf said. “And I say things that oftentimes are misinterpreted or misunderstood.” Primary ballots will be mailed to Colorado voters beginning June 3. 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