An elementary school in Colorado could be turned into a holding center for migrants as they continue to cross the country’s southern border in droves.
The building currently vacant in Denver has been floated as an option and is being considered by the city’s Democratic mayor.
The exact school site, which is owned by Denver Public Schools, was not disclosed. However, city officials say they are making contingency plans to convert the site into an emergency shelter.
According to a spokesman for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, the building “has been identified as a potential migrant holding center, but nothing has been finalized and there is no paperwork.”
Johnston explained that the city is looking for “buildings that are suitable for emergency shelters.” [But that] no decision has been made yet.
A Colorado elementary school is set to be converted into a migrant shelter (file photo)
The building currently vacant in Denver is currently an option being considered by the city’s Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston, pictured above
Denver, a city of more than 700,000 people, is also a “sanctuary city,” meaning federal immigration law is not enforced there.
“The location you referenced was looked at as a possible location to provide temporary housing for new arrivals,” said Jon Ewing, a spokesman for the Denver mayor’s office. Fox News‘No decisions have been made yet, and no contracts have been signed yet.
“It’s probably also worth emphasizing that there are very few new arrivals in shelters at the moment. In the whole of August, we saw about 150 people come through our shelter system, many of whom stayed for just a few hours before moving on to other locations.”
The city also refuses to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, but there are concerns that parts of Denver have recently been overrun by Venezuelan gangs.
Last month, a video released in the Denver suburb of Aurora showed gunmen knocking on an apartment door, raising fears that the Tren de Aragua gang had taken control of the six-building complex.
On Thursday, Aurora police said the gang had a limited presence in the city and had not taken over the dilapidated apartment complex.
Footage from a resident of an apartment complex in Aurora shows armed men knocking on a door, raising fears that the Tren de Aragua gang has taken control of the complex.
Still, the accusations persist among conservatives and were amplified Wednesday by former President Donald Trump during a Fox News event, where he said Venezuelans are “taking over the whole city.”
Aurora is a diverse city that has long struggled with crime and gangs. Police say they have so far linked 10 people to Tren de Aragua and have arrested six of them, including suspects in an attempted murder in July.
But during a visit to the apartments where the gunmen were filmed, Aurora Interim Police Chief Heather Morris said the gang members had not taken over the property and were not collecting rent.
The statements came after Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said “criminal elements” had taken over several unnamed buildings and were extorting residents.
After residents held a press conference to speak out against the gang allegations, Coffman, a Republican and former congressman, admitted he’s “not sure what the truth is in all of this.”
Aurora police are seen at the complex, saying claims that the building has been taken over by a gang are false.
In a video, other members of the gang run up the stairs, guns in hand. In the background, the men can be heard speaking Spanish to each other
A boy cycles past apartment buildings as a meeting is held in the courtyard to address chronic problems in the apartment buildings housing people displaced from their home countries in Central and South America in Aurora
In a interview this week with Denver7 According to television station Coffman, the story that all of Aurora is unsafe is untrue and damaging to the economic health of the fast-growing city of more than 400,000 residents.
Trump is trying to play on concerns about immigration as he seeks a second term in November.
On Wednesday night at city hall, he repeated his call for mass deportations after exaggerating the gang situation in Aurora.
“You look at Aurora, Colorado, Venezuelans are taking over the whole city, they’re taking over buildings, the whole city,” Trump said. “You saw it the other day, they’re bashing down doors, taking over people’s apartments.”
The video that bolstered the allegations showed armed men, including one with a long gun, climbing stairs and knocking on an apartment door.
The former residents who made the recordings told KDVR-TV that the recordings took place before the shooting at the complex on Aug. 18, which later left a 25-year-old man dead.
Venezuela’s most violent gang, Tren de Aragua, has moved its headquarters just across the US border in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez
Gang members who have been involved in police shootings, human trafficking and other crimes are among the nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants who have entered the U.S. in recent years. Yet there is no evidence the gang has set up an organizational structure in the U.S., said Jeremy McDermott, the Colombia-based co-director of InSight Crime. told the Associated Press this summer.
He recently published a report on the expansion of Tren de Aragua.
Social media posts about a video who claim to show migrants the hijacking of a school bus in San Diego and a 911 call reporting Venezuelan migrants taking over an apartment building in Chicago have also received attention recently. Both were unfounded.
Many immigrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries living in the Aurora complex say there are no gangs and that they are unfairly portrayed as criminals.