Police in a Denver suburb are disputing claims by some Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, that a Venezuelan gang has taken over an apartment complex there, the latest political flash point in the immigration debate.
Trump has repeatedly raised the issue in recent appearances and social media posts, seeking to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the situation at times.
“If you look at Aurora, Colorado, they’re taking over the place; they took over buildings,” Trump said Friday during a news conference in New York. “This is just the beginning.”
The Aurora Police Department has stressed that it takes the gang seriously, but it also pushed back against suggestions that gang members have gained control of the complex.
“I’m not saying that there’s not gang members that don’t live in this community, but what we’re learning out here is that gang members have not taken over this complex,” Heather Morris, the interim police chief in Aurora, said in a recent video taped outside the complex.
The video was one of several efforts the city has made to address concerns — and try to clear up misinformation — about the local presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Much of the firestorm goes back to a viral video that purported to show gang members, armed with weapons, storming through the complex, the Edge at Lowry Apartments. The Republican mayor of Aurora, Mike Coffman, posted a screenshot of the video on Facebook and announced the city would be seeking an emergency court order to clear the buildings by declaring them a “criminal nuisance.”
Around the same time, the city said in a statement that “there is a small Tren de Aragua (TdA) presence in Aurora and we have been taking it seriously.” But it also lamented the media attention that was being paid to the situation, saying people have “mischaracterized our city based on isolated incidents.”
Some tenants held a news conference this week and disputed the notion that the gang has taken over the complex. Instead, they said, the problem is that the apartment block has fallen into disrepair and is infested with bedbugs, cockroaches and rats.
Coffman has since dialed back his rhetoric on the complex after touring it and talking with tenants.
“Not sure where the truth is in all of this, but I’ll continue to work on it to find out,” Coffman said in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Trump has nonetheless continued to echo the claims that the gang has gained control of the complex. He has made at least two posts on his Truth Social platform alluding to the events in Aurora, one of which featured an image of scowling, tattooed men and said, “Your new apartment managers if Kamala’s re-elected.”
During a speech Thursday in New York, Trump said that a group of “rough ones” from Venezuela “took over large sections of a town, large sections of an area of Colorado.”
“Aurora — has anyone been there?” Trump said. “I think you’d better stay away for a little while.”