Donald Trump visits Aurora, Colorado, pushing deceptive narratives about migrants

Former President Donald Trump visited Aurora, Colorado, for a marketing campaign rally on Friday the place he continued to push deceptive narratives in regards to the metropolis’s migrant inhabitants.

“My message at present could be very easy,” Trump informed the gang. “No one who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this neighborhood can ever be allowed to grow to be the president of america. We’re not going to let it occur.”

Within the ultimate weeks of his marketing campaign, Trump has continued to deal with the difficulty of immigration, escalating his rhetoric on undocumented immigrants he typically paints as violent criminals.

“I’ll rescue Aurora and each city that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump stated. “These cities have been conquered … And we’ll put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them out of our nation. And we might be very, very efficient in doing it. It may occur very, very quick.”

Particularly, the previous president has used Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, to emphasise his level, each examples stemming from viral on-line tales he’s been fast to advertise, typically with out correct context.

His false narratives on Aurora started final month when a video of armed people roaming round an condo complicated in Aurora went viral amongst right-wing social media influencers.

Trump, who has shared that video himself, has repeatedly claimed that members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang have “taken over” condo complexes and “overrun” town, regardless of the Aurora Police Division refuting allegations of the condo complicated being run by a Venezuelan gang.

Aurora’s Police Chief Todd Chamberlain has instantly refuted Trump’s claims, saying in a press convention late final month that, “This isn’t an immigration situation. It is a crime situation.”

“We aren’t, by any means, overtaken by Venezuelan gangs,” he added.

The Metropolis of Aurora additionally offered readability on the state of affairs in a publish on its official X account, stating that whereas there was a priority a couple of “small” presence of the Venezuelan gang members in Aurora, town is taking the state of affairs significantly. Town confused that Aurora is a “secure neighborhood” and that experiences of gang members are “remoted to a handful of downside properties alone.”

Mike Coffman, the Republican mayor of Aurora, has additionally pushed again on Trump’s “grossly exaggerated” claims.

“Former President Trump’s go to to Aurora is a chance to indicate him and the nation that Aurora is a significantly secure metropolis – not a metropolis overrun by Venezuelan gangs,” Coffman stated.

Nonetheless, Trump has continued to amplify these debunked tales to his supporters all through the nation as a rallying cry as he assaults the immigration insurance policies of the Biden-Harris administration.

Within the press launch saying Friday’s occasion, the Trump marketing campaign described Aurora as a “warfare zone,” arguing folks have been crossing the border and descending upon town “bringing chaos and worry with them.”

Equally, Trump has repeatedly amplified debunked claims that Haitian migrants are consuming pets in Springfield.

Trump’s go to is one which he has been desirous to make for some time to convey extra consideration to the nation’s immigration insurance policies. At latest marketing campaign rallies, Trump has grow to be extra vocal about his need to go to Aurora and Springfield.

Whereas the Republican mayor of Springfield, Rob Rue, discouraged visits from candidates on each side of the aisle, Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has offered the journey as a studying alternative for the previous president.

“The fact is, Donald Trump continues to inform economically damaging and hurtful lies about Aurora,” Polis stated in a press release to ABC affiliate Denver7 amid ongoing discussions of a possible go to. “If former President Trump does go to, he’ll discover town of Aurora is a powerful, vibrant, and various metropolis of greater than 400,000 hardworking Coloradans and a beautiful place to stay, run a enterprise, increase a household, and retire.”

Trump has launched assaults on the native and state officers on the marketing campaign path, typically making baseless claims that Aurora Mayor Coffman and Gov. Polis are “petrified,” saying Coffman “doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing” — and even claiming they don’t need to increase the immigration situation as a result of they need to be “politically appropriate.”

Campaigning in Uniondale, New York, final month, Trump, whereas declaring that he deliberate to go to Aurora and Springfield quickly, instructed that he won’t make it again out after his visiting these locations on account of unspecified crime.

“I will go there within the subsequent two weeks. I will Springfield, and I will Aurora,” Trump stated in Uniondale. “Chances are you’ll by no means see me once more, however that is OK. Bought to do what I received to do. No matter occurred to Trump? ‘Effectively, he by no means received out of Springfield.’”

Trump’s go to to Aurora additionally got here as he’s pledged on the marketing campaign path to start his promise of mass deportations in Springfield and Aurora.

“We will have the biggest deportation within the historical past of our nation,” Trump stated as he took reporter questions in Los Angeles, California, final month. “And we will begin with Springfield and Aurora, [Colorado].”

“We will take these violent folks, and we will ship them again to their nation, and if they arrive again in, they will pay a hell of a value,” Trump additionally stated.

Springfield has many Haitian residents who’re both legally licensed to stay and work within the U.S. or are protected against expulsion by legislation.

Editor’s word: This story has been up to date to mirror that Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is a Republican.