Trump seizes on one block of a Colorado city to warn of migrant crime threat, even as crime dips

AURORA, Colo. — The city of Aurora is about the size of Tampa, Florida, before the evacuation. With 400,000 residents spread over 160 square miles, it has upscale subdivisions, working-class neighborhoods and the luxury resort where Donald Trump will hold a rally on Friday to draw attention to a city turned into a “war zone” by immigrants, in the words of his campaign.

The reality is very different from the reality that Trump has presented to his rally goers. As in many other American citiesAurora’s crime rate is actually decreasing.

The issue that brought the Denver suburb to Trump’s attention took place in August in a single block of the city, in an apartment complex where Venezuelan migrants live.

That’s when video emerged of heavily armed men going door to door at the complex, where New York-based owners alleged a Venezuelan gang was extorting rent from tenants. Around the time the video was recorded, someone was shot and killed outside the complex, police said.

Now, two months later, authorities say they have identified the six men in the video and arrested one. Tenants of the building say police check in regularly and that the area is safe.

“They left, and it was nice and quiet,” Edward Ramirez, 38, said of the gunmen as he got into his car this week. He was one of more than a dozen tenants who said in interviews that the threat has subsided. “It’s quiet, we can work, it’s normal.”

Aurora’s crime rate has a downward trend Across the country there has been a decline that overlaps with the influx of Venezuelans fleeing their country and flocking to Colorado and other rural cities.

Several studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native Americans. But Aurora is also an example of how Trump has been able to use real but isolated episodes of migrant violence to tar an entire population. He uses these examples to paint a picture of a country in chaos due to what he regularly calls an “invasion” of immigrants.

“See what they’re doing in Colorado? They are taking over,” Trump, who often warns of “migrant crime,” said of Venezuelan gang members at a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. ‘They’re taking over real estate. They become real estate developers from Venezuela. They have equipment that our military doesn’t have.”

Trump’s sweeping claims about Aurora — his campaign’s announcement of the rally calls the city “a war zone,” citing a story in the conservative New York Post using those words — have drawn sharp criticism from local residents.

“Former President Trump’s visit to Aurora is an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a significantly safe city – and not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs,” said Mayor Mike Coffman, who occasionally Trump was a critic when he served as a Republican congressman. , said in a statement “The reality is that concerns about Venezuelan gang activity are grossly exaggerated.”

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, noted that Aurora has long fought to shake its reputation as Colorado’s grittier big city. It is the third most populous state in the state and has long lived in the shadow of neighboring Denver. A fifth of Aurora’s residents were born in another country.

“This is a safer city than before,” Polis said in an interview. “Things are going very well” in Aurora, Polis added, “and I don’t want this bizarre counter-narrative to get out into the world.”

Asked how it could justify its sweeping security claims as crime declines in Aurora, the Trump campaign responded with a statement from the Republican National Committee: “The violent gang invasion of Aurora, Colorado, is just one example of how every state is a border. state,” said spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “Aurora apartment complexes are war zones, fentanyl is flooding communities and migrant criminals are raping and murdering victims.”

Trump’s rally will be held at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, approximately 10 miles from the apartment complexes. His schedule for the day does not indicate that he plans to visit the area.

Trump’s characterization of the city and the backlash from officials and residents are reminiscent of the falsehoods he and his running mate, JD Vance, have proclaimed. spread among Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets Springfield, OH. Those repeated lies led to several bomb threats against schools, government buildings and homes of city officials, forced evacuations and closures, and led the city to cancel an annual celebration of diversity, arts and culture.

Aurora did see a “slight” increase in crime that coincided with the arrival of large numbers of Venezuelans in the city in September 2023, Police Chief Todd Chamberlain told a news conference last month. But that increase has since subsided. There were 12% fewer major crimes in the city last month — ranging from murder to car theft — than in September 2023, according to Aurora police data.

The migrants started coming in Denver late 2022, which Colorado crime statistics show, was the peak of a steady increase in crime in the state since the pandemic. In 2023, as Venezuelans became a fixture on some street corners in Denver, selling flowers or offering quick car window washes, frustrating for many Colorado voterscrime dropped statewide.

The Aurora City Council passed a resolution opposing migrant resettlement in their city, but nonprofits found willing landlords to take some anyway. Others moved independently, attracted by cheaper rents.

In July, thousands gathered at an Aurora shopping center to mark Venezuela’s elections, and police reported gunfire after the event, intended to celebrate the defeat of President Nicolas Maduro – who instead declared himself the winner, despite numbers showing he lost.

During his campaign, Trump routinely cited specific cases of migrants committing crimes, often grim cases like that of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia woman who was killed on a track in February. A Venezuelan national who entered the country illegally in 2022 has been charged with murder and other crimes related to the killing.

Trump has claimed Venezuela and other countries are emptying out their prisons, mental institutions and “insane asylums” to send dangerous people to the US and has argued that Venezuela’s notoriously violent capital, Caracas, is safer than many US cities. This latest claim has sparked disbelief among Venezuelan migrants who say they feel much safer in Aurora.

“It’s a thousand times better here than in Venezuela,” said Dexe Medina, 44, as she left the Aurora apartment complex.

There are numerous broken windows in the buildings, the lights in the hallways don’t work, and trash and discarded mattresses are coming out of a dumpster behind them.

The dilapidated conditions are part of the reason why the August episode attracted attention. Aurora closed one of CBZ Management’s three apartment buildings due to unsanitary conditions. Aurora has said conditions in the complexes have been poor for a long time, before the Venezuelan arrivals. But CBZ countered that it was unable to provide alimony because a notorious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Araguatook over the buildings.

The two buildings that remain open are now in receivership and residents say they hope the new management will finally restore regular maintenance. Medina said conditions have improved somewhat — previously, she said, the courtyards between the three-story buildings had “towers” of rubble and trash.

The neighborhood where many Venezuelans settled has long been one of Aurora’s rougher areas, close to Colfax Boulevard, a sometimes dilapidated street that bills itself as the longest street in the country and runs from Aurora west through neighboring Denver to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. . On the opposite corner of the apartment complex, a camera hangs above the fence surrounding a daycare center and a recorded voice warns visitors: “You are under video surveillance.”

Longtime residents say they’ve heard the occasional gunshot for years, but things seem relatively calm now.

“Honestly, this general area has improved,” said Diego Garcia, 18, a high school student who lives a block away from the complex where the video was shot. “It used to be much worse.”

Although residents feel safer, they acknowledge that the days in August when the gunmen roamed the neighborhood were terrifying. Richard Rodriguez, 48, received a call from his mother in Venezuela, who panicked about his safety when the video aired.

“Think of the fear that went into people’s hearts,” Rodriguez said of the video. “Imagine what it felt like for us to live here.”

Aurora City Councilman Dustin Zvonek also received concerned calls and texts when the video aired, asking if he was safe.

“I’m like, ‘Dude, I live 40 minutes away,’” Zvonek said.

Still, he said the situation was serious and problems persisted. It could take many months before many Venezuelans awaiting an asylum hearing can obtain work permits, leaving them desperate in a new country where they have few connections.

“We’re putting them in a terrible situation and that’s impacting businesses,” he said, adding that a nearby Walmart and Walgreens recently closed due to concerns about theft.

Zvonek, a Republican, emphasized that Aurora remains a safe city with declining crime, but cautioned against minimizing specific problems like those in the apartment complexes. He noted that residents of the buildings and immediate neighbors are not reassured that crime is down overall.

“It’s always no big deal,” Zvonek said, “until it happens to you.”