AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Donald Trump left a battleground state Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that has been in the news for illegal immigration, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanizing language to send the message that immigrants are wreaking havoc. I told you. In small cities and towns in America.
Trump’s rally in Aurora marked the first visit by either presidential campaign to Colorado ahead of the November election, which has voted reliably Democratic statewide.
The Republican candidate has long promised to launch the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and has made immigration his political persona since he first launched his campaign in 2015. In recent months, Trump has pointed to specific small communities where large numbers of immigrants have arrived. Local tensions over resources are heightened, and some long-term residents express disbelief at the sudden demographic change.
Aurora gained attention last August when a video was circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan immigrants. Trump has made widespread claims that Venezuelan gangs are occupying the building, which authorities said was a block in a suburb near Denver and the area is safe again.
Trump ignored these refusals from local authorities and criticized President Joe Biden and Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, painting a picture of apartment complexes overrun with “savage thugs” and streets unsafe for travel.
“They are ruining your state,” Trump said of Democrats at the White House.
RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images via Getty Images
“Anyone who perpetrated the violence and terror that Kamala Harris inflicted on this community can never be President of the United States,” Trump added.
Trump frequently used dehumanizing language, including referring to his political rivals as “scum” and immigrants as “animals” who “invaded and conquered” Aurora. He said the town was “infected with Venezuela.”
“We have to clean up our country,” President Trump said. And he replicated the first controversy of his political career when he launched his 2016 campaign by saying immigrants were rapists and brought drugs and crime.
“I took a lot of heat for saying that, but I was right,” Trump said Friday, repeating his false claims that other countries are emptying their prisons and mental hospitals and dumping their worst criminals in the United States.
To thunderous applause, he called for the death penalty “for every immigrant who kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer.”
On Friday afternoon in Reno, Nevada, Trump claimed the United States was an “occupied nation” and said, “I swear to you: November 5, 2024 will be the day of liberation for America.” Liberation Day.”
In Colorado, Trump announced that as president he would launch Operation Aurora, which would focus on deporting members of the Venezuelan gang Trend de Aragua (TDA). The violent gang’s origins began in notoriously lawless prisons with offenders over 10 years old.
Trump also reiterated his promise to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport non-citizens from countries at war with the United States.
In July, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on the gang and offered a $12 million reward in exchange for the arrest of its three leaders.
Aurora resident Jody Powell, 54, also attended Trump’s Friday event. She said it was “not true” that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the city, as Trump claimed. Nonetheless, Powell said he has seen an increase in crime involving newcomers, noting that a police chase ended in a store where he used to shop.
“It takes a small group of people to make a big difference in a community,” said Powell, who lists immigration as a top concern along with the economy. “It’s scary, it’s scary.”
At the location where Trump appeared, there was a poster displaying mug shots of people in prison in orange along with the description ‘a gang of illegal immigrants from Venezuela.’
“Look at all these pictures around me,” Stephen Miller, a former top aide who is expected to take a senior position in the White House if Trump wins, told the crowd. “Are these the kids you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you want in your city?” The crowd answered, “No.”
Some Colorado officials, including the Republican mayor of Aurora, have accused Trump and other Republicans of exaggerating the city’s problems.
“Once again, the reality is that concerns about Venezuelan gang activity in our city and our state have been overblown and have unfairly undermined our city’s identity and sense of safety,” said former U.S. Representative Mike Coffman.
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, also spread false information about a community in Springfield, Ohio, claiming that Haitian immigrants had been accused of stealing and eating pets.
Ohio and Colorado are not competitive in the presidential race, but the Republican message on immigration is aimed at competitive states. Vance recently campaigned in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 70,000 that has resettled refugees from Africa and Asia, and touted Trump’s plan to increase deportations. He claims small communities have been “overwhelmed” by immigrants who tax local resources.
Trump has pledged to deport not only the “criminals” he promised to Harris, but also Haitians living legally in Springfield and even people he disparaged as “Hamas radicals” protesting on college campuses. Trump said he would revoke the temporary protected status that allows Haitians to remain in the United States because of widespread poverty and violence in their homeland.
Harris has presented herself as a candidate who takes a right-wing stance on immigration and takes a hard line on border policing, which she perceives as one of her biggest vulnerabilities.
She wrapped up a three-day Western outing Friday with a campaign event in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she said she would create a bipartisan advisory council to provide feedback on her policy plans if she goes to the White House.
“I love good ideas, no matter where they come from,” said Harris, who is trying to get Republicans who have reservations about Trump to support her.
She also accused Trump of allowing Iran to “obstruct” him while he was in office and insisted she would be a greater advocate for Israel’s security.
“As president, I will never hesitate to take whatever steps are necessary to defend America’s troops and interests against Iran and Iranian-backed terrorists,” Harris said in a call with Jewish supporters ahead of Yom Kippur. “And I will never allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Diplomacy is my preferred path for this. But all options are on the table,” he said.
Harris criticized President Trump for “doing nothing” after Iran “attacked American bases and American troops.”
Harris’s criticism hit Trump for downplaying the fact that several U.S. soldiers suffered concussion-like symptoms following an Iranian missile attack on a U.S. military base in Iraq in January 2020, including some who had to be evacuated for treatment. It was. President Trump described the injury as a “headache” earlier this month.
The Iranian missile strike came days after President Trump ordered airstrikes that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
Harris virtually participated in a White House briefing with President Biden on recovery efforts from Hurricanes Milton and Helen. She tried to reassure people affected by the hurricane that they would get help from the government.
Gomez reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix and Thomas Beaumont in Reno, Nevada, contributed.
