EXCLUSIVE: Hispanics living in Democratic-run jurisdictions are frustrated with sanctuary policies, which they feel are allowing criminal illegal aliens to prey on their communities, according to a Latino congressman from Colorado.

While some Democrats and media outlets attempt to portray Hispanics as universally opposed to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., said the reality in his district is very different.

Both Colorado and Denver have sanctuary policies in place that limit local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies. Evans said that this has led to a marked increase in crime and violence in his community.

Earlier this year, then-acting DEA Administrator Derek Maltz said sanctuary policies had allowed Colorado to become “ground zero for some of the most violent criminals in America,” including Tren de Aragua’s leadership.

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Tren de Aragua — also known by its acronym “TdA” — is a violent Venezuelan criminal group that has been linked to some of the most high-profile crimes in America in recent years, including the murder of nursing student Laken Riley and the capturing of an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado.  

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Evans, a young Latino and former police officer who represents a district just north of Denver, further confirmed that sanctuary policies in his district are wreaking havoc on both Hispanic lives and businesses.

“In my district, we had one of the first big raids that we saw of the new administration, where over 40 Tren de Aragua gang members and their affiliates were all apprehended by the DEA working in conjunction with other agencies,” he said. “We’re talking guns and drugs and human trafficking and child abuse … these are the people that have been festering in our society under the sanctuary state policies in Colorado.”

As the only Latino member of the Colorado delegation in Congress, Evans said the sanctuary policies are personal.

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“We don’t want these people in our community,” he said.  

“I have conversations with my local Hispanic business owners with people that are not just major pillars of the Hispanic community, but these are also husbands and wives and moms and dads. And they don’t want Tren de Aragua in their communities. They don’t want their local businesses, Hispanic-owned businesses, to be burglarized or to have violence.”

Evans shared that one constituent who owns a Hispanic grocery store told him he was regularly losing thousands of dollars a day during the Biden administration because of illegal immigrant crime.

“He said the previous several years under the Biden administration were horrible because he would have illegal immigrants come into his store on a routine basis – we’re talking daily or weekly – and stealing thousands of dollars of goods from him,” he explained. “But because of the sanctuary state policies and because the previous administration had zero desire to enforce the law, there was nothing he could do about it.”

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“There was nothing that state or local law enforcement could do because they were prohibited by these sanctuary laws and the feds weren’t interested. So, he watched thousands of dollars of merchandise walk out of his store on a weekly, sometimes a daily basis as a direct result of these policies. That hurts him. That hurts the Hispanic community.”

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“We don’t want drug dealers and cartels and criminals and gangbangers in our community,” he went on. “So, this emphasis on cracking down on these criminal elements who are not only illegally present in the United States but are committing other crimes is long overdue, and there’s a lot of support for that in the Hispanic community.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.