Former President Donald Trump in a speech Friday identified Aurora, along with Springfield, Ohio, as cities from which he would deport immigrants if he is elected in November.
“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Trump told reporters in Los Angeles, according to an account of the speech from Huffington Post. “And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora.”
Aurora, the city with the greatest share of foreign-born residents in Colorado, has been in the headlines this month after a video surfaced showing a group of men armed with guns knocking on an apartment door in an Aurora apartment complex.
The Aurora Police Department this week identified nine members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua charged in 14 separate criminal incidents over the last 10 months, including at least seven events at apartment complexes in the city.
The alleged crimes connected to the Tren de Aragua members include two shootings, several assaults, thefts and instances of threatening people with guns. The allegations also include intimate partner domestic violence and disputes between roommates.
Court records detailing the allegations show that gang members in some instances intimidated and attacked residents at the Edge at Lowry apartment complex at Dallas Street and 12th Avenue, at the now-shuttered Fitzsimons Place apartments at 1568 Nome St. and at the Whispering Pines Condominiums at 1357 Helena St.
City officials have consistently acknowledged the presence of Tren de Aragua, or TdA, members in Aurora but have said their numbers are few and they operate in isolated areas.
Springfield, Ohio, was mentioned by Trump on Friday — and earlier in the week during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris — as a city where the former president claims Haitian immigrants have been abducting and eating pets, an unverified charge amplified on social media.
Officials in Springfield have said there is no evidence backing up the ex-president’s claims.
The Colorado Immigration Rights Coalition issued a press release Friday evening, condemning Trump’s remarks.
“Trump’s fear mongering is as dangerous as it is dishonest,” Gladis Ibarra, co-executive director of the coalition, said in a statement. “He doesn’t care about Aurora or Colorado. Immigrants are our teachers, our neighbors, our parents and our children. We will not let them be demonized or ripped from our communities.”
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