The city of Aurora, Colorado, first appeared in the illegal migrant conversation in August of last year, when the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang from Venezuela was reported to have taken over whole apartment blocks in the city of 400,000. Initially denied at first, evidence of the takeover turned out to be persuasive. In fact, as reported in December, members of the gang invaded a unit in the Edge of Lowry apartments and kidnapped and tortured the residents there. The complex is so riddled with gang violence that this week the city declared it “an epicenter for unmitigated violent crimes and property crimes,” and a judge ordered it closed.
The TdA remain, however, along with large numbers of other illegals, most from Venezuela. Those not actively engaged in crime are “living in the streets, asking for money or running up to cars stopped at intersections with squeegees.” Former ICE field office director for the Denver region John Fabbricatore said this week:
We’ve seen extortion, we’ve seen murders, we’ve seen a kidnapping — a direct result of what’s happened at the border in the last four years, and also allowing all these people to come in that were not vetted. We did not know who they are. And now we have more gang members entering the community.
President-elect Donald Trump visited the city in October and declared: “Upon taking office, we will have an ‘Operation Aurora’ at the federal level to expedite the removals of these savage gangs.”
Aurora’s Republican mayor, Mike Coffman, is placing blame on the nearby “sanctuary city” of Denver, which he says has been sending migrants to Aurora,”via the cover of two nonprofit organizations.” He also said Denver had prevented efforts by Aurora officials to find out how many migrants had actually been sent. He wrote, “As the mayor of Aurora, I’m asking that [Denver] Mayor Mike Johnston be transparent and tell the truth about what he did.”
A spokesman for Johnston denied the charges, but failed to place the blame where it properly belongs: on the shoulders of the soon-to-be-former President Joe Biden.
For more, see Fox News.