U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans has routinely characterized his Mexican immigrant grandfather’s path to American citizenship as a model for fixing the country’s immigration system, including last week when the Colorado Republican touted a sweeping immigration reform bill he cosponsored.

At a news conference declaring victory last November in one of the closest congressional races in the country, Evans repeatedly referred to his “abuelito Chavez” — the candidate’s maternal grandfather, Cuauhtemoc Chavez, who died in 2014 — when asked to elaborate on the immigration policies he would support in the upcoming Trump administration.

“Through our campaign, we spoke to Republicans, we spoke to Democrats, we spoke to unaffiliated, we’ve spoke to third parties,” Evans told reporters and volunteers at his Thornton campaign office. “And we found that common ground on the issues that defined this race — making sure that we have a secure border, making sure that we’re doing work to fix our broken immigration system for those who legally want to come to this country, as my grandfather did, and be a contributing part of the American dream.”

At the same event, Evans invoked his grandfather’s adopted country’s immigrant tradition.

“We are the great melting pot,” he said. “We know what it says on the Statue of Liberty: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That is the American dream. And so I think all that people ask is that if you’re going to come to the United States, you do it the right way. You come here legally.”

Evans’ grandfather has gotten shout-outs in speeches, debate exchanges, fundraising emails and press releases from the 38-year-old former Arvada police officer, who served one term in the state legislature before his election to Congress in 2024.

Evans unseated Democrat Yadira Caraveo in the toss-up 8th Congressional District, which covers suburbs north of Denver to Greeley and was drawn to be Colorado’s “Hispanic influence” district, with at least 30% of its population identifying as Hispanic.

Answering a question about deportation policy during the congressional race’s first primary debate last year, Evans told a crowd in Fort Lupton that his grandfather “did it the right way and did it the legal way.”

New reporting on Tuesday by Colorado Newsline, however, found that there’s more to the story Evans has been telling.

According to archived Immigration and Naturalization Service documents obtained by Newsline, Evans’ grandfather entered the country illegally at age 5 with his mother and siblings in 1929 and lived without documentation in El Paso, Texas, for the next 12 years. When the “alien registration form” was prepared, the 16-year-old had been arrested on an “immigration violation” and became subject to “deportation proceedings,” according to the documents. In addition, documents said Chavez and at least two of his sisters had crossed the border “to live, illegal entry.” The form devoted to Evans’ grandfather included a reference to an undated arrest for “attempted burglary.”

Evans’ grandfather became a citizen in 1946 after serving in the military during World War II and earning two Purple Hearts during his service. Colorado Public Radio reported Tuesday that Chavez could have benefitted from a 1944 law that dropped proof of lawful entry as a requirement for citizenship.

Evans’ office didn’t make the congressman available for an interview Wednesday, but CPR’s Caitlyn Kim caught up with Evans in Washington soon after the Newsline story posted online.

“I think I’ve always talked about doing it the ‘right way,’ which is in reference to the fact that [my grandfather] joined the military and served his country,” said Evans, who served 12 years in the Army and National Guard.

Noting that his grandfather attained citizenship “80 years ago,” Evans cited his decade of experience as a police officer, adding that he believes “every single case is different in its own unique individual and the facts of that case.” Authorities who granted his grandfather citizenship, Evans said, “looked at the totality of the circumstances. He joined the military, he served honorably, he gained his citizenship.”

A spokeswoman for Evans told Colorado Politics that it shouldn’t be a surprise that Evans’ ancestor entered the country illegally, considering the timeline and circumstances, but stressed that Chavez earned his citizenship as an adult — in other words, the right way, as Evans describes it.

That’s as opposed to the wrong way, Evans aide Delanie Bomar said Wednesday, comparing the path of her boss’s forebear to immigrants who crossed the border during the Biden administration.