AURORA, Colo. — Former President Donald Trump painted a dark picture of Colorado’s third-largest city at a rally here Friday as he once again claimed it had been overtaken by a Venezuelan prison gang. But the city’s police chief told NBC News that Aurora is still “very safe.”
“It's not overrun. Without question, Aurora is still a very safe city. It is still a wonderful community that is incredibly diverse,” Todd Chamberlain said. While there is some gang activity, he added, “what we hope to do is make sure that that gang doesn’t grow.”
On the trail, Trump has highlighted a specific Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, known as TDA, after a social media clip went viral last month claiming that the gang had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora. Police at the time said there was no evidence the gang had taken over the complex, and Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, called Trump’s descriptions “not accurate.”
At his rally Friday, Trump said immigrants coming from “the dungeons of the Third World, from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions” have preyed on “innocent Americans” across the country.
“And no place is it more evident than right here,” he continued, “because in Aurora, multiple apartment complexes have been taken over by the savage Venezuela prison gang.”
The narrative that immigrants have taken over the U.S. is central to Trump’s re-election campaign. Using increasingly inflammatory rhetoric, Trump has seized on other suburban areas with immigrant populations. Last month, he and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, were rebuked by local leaders after they repeatedly claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were kidnapping and eating pets.
At his rally Friday, Trump said he would “rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded.” He announced a plan, dubbed Operation Aurora, to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport members of TDA and other gangs.
Chamberlain emphasized in his interview with NBC News that he did not want to be involved in a mass deportation effort and that regardless of immigration status, the job of law enforcement is to bring justice for crimes committed.
“We are not in the business of deciding if you’re documented or undocumented. We’re in the business of making sure that if you commit crimes, we hold you accountable, or if you are victimized, we hold you near and we give you that support and those things that you need,” he said.
Asked to respond to Chamberlain’s comments, Trump’s campaign spokesperson pointed to a series of news articles about gang violence she posted on X.
