At a rally here on Friday, former President Donald Trump presented a bleak image of Colorado’s third-largest city, asserting once more that it had been taken over by a jail gang from Venezuela. However, the head of police for the city told NBC News that Aurora is “extremely safe.”
It’s not taken over. Without a doubt, the city of Aurora remains quite safe. Todd Chamberlain remarked, “It’s still a beautiful, extremely varied community. Although there is some gang activity, he continued, “our goal is to prevent that gang from expanding.”
Trump has brought attention to the Tren de Aragua, or TDA, prison gang in Venezuela while on the campaign trail. This is because last month, a social media video purportedly showed the group occupying an Aurora apartment building. At the time, Republicans Mike Coffman, the mayor of Aurora, and the police claimed there was no proof the gang had taken over the property, calling Trump’s claims “not accurate.”
During his speech on Friday, Trump said that immigrants from both mental and criminal asylums, as well as “the dungeons of the Third World,” had preyed on “innocent Americans” all around the nation.
“And nowhere is it more evident than right here,” he said, “because the vicious Venezuela prison gang has taken over multiple apartment complexes in Aurora.”
The main tenet of Trump’s reelection campaign is the idea that foreigners have taken over the country. Trump has focused his increasingly divisive remarks on other suburban regions where immigrants reside. He and his running companion, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, came under fire from local authorities last month after they kept making accusations that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were robbing people of their pets and devouring them.
Trump declared that he will “rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded” during his speech on Friday. He unveiled a scheme to deport TDA and other gang members by using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which he called Operation Aurora.
In his interview with NBC News, Chamberlain made it clear that he was against mass deportations and that police enforcement’s role is to uphold the rule of law, regardless of an individual’s legal status.
“Determining whether you are documented or undocumented is not our business. Our job is to ensure that, should you commit crimes, you are held responsible or, should you become a victim, that you are supported and given the resources you require,” the speaker stated.
When asked to address Chamberlain’s remarks, a spokesman for Trump’s team referred to a number of news stories she has published on X about gang violence.
