Top Colorado Democrats including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, second from left, held a campaign event to denounce former President Donald Trump’s false claims about a gang “takeover” of Aurora ahead of Trump’s visit to the city on Oct. 11, 2024. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
Five of Colorado’s top Democratic elected officials held a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris at an Aurora brewery on Friday morning, where they pushed back on the racist rhetoric and false claims about immigrants made by former President Donald Trump in the final weeks of the 2024 presidential election.
Later on Friday, Trump will make a stop on the far northern outskirts of Aurora, which he called a “war zone,” weeks after his campaign and other far-right political figures helped spread false and exaggerated claims about a “takeover” of the city by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The claims have been repeatedly debunked by local law enforcement officials, Aurora’s Republican mayor and residents of the buildings where Trump and his allies have alleged gangs have seized apartments or are extorting tenants for rent.
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U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat who represents Aurora in Congress, denounced Trump’s “lies and distortions” alongside other Democrats at Aurora’s Cheluna Brewery.
“I’ve spoken with federal law enforcement numerous times, and they are very clear that there is no uptick in transnational gang activity in Colorado and in this area,” he said.
“What is occurring is minimal and isolated — and to be clear, it’s never acceptable,” Crow added. “We would never say any level is acceptable. But it’s not a surge. There is no takeover of any part of this city, of any apartment complex. It has not happened. It is a lie.”
Gov. Jared Polis called Aurora a “safe, vibrant, wonderful place to live,” and rebutted claims that overall crime rates have risen in the Denver metro area since large numbers of migrants, many of them from Central and South America, began arriving in Colorado in early 2023.
“Crime is significantly down over the last two years — a 31% decrease in auto theft, a 25% decrease in burglary,” Polis said. “Whatever we’re doing, it’s working. Aurora is safer than it’s been.”
Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet delivered an emphatic condemnation of what he called Trump’s “pathological hatred of immigrants.”
“Donald Trump has invited himself to Aurora to do what Donald Trump does best, which is to demonize immigrants, to lie and to serve his own political purposes,” Bennet said.
“Aurora, as the governor said, is a vibrant community,” he added. “It’s the reason why immigrants come to our country, and it shows how immigrants enrich our country… (People) from all over the world, who are immigrants and who are non-immigrants, who are trying to build a better life for themselves, for their families and for our community — and Donald Trump’s presence here today does nothing to help any of them.”
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