Inside Aurora, Colorado - the city Donald Trump thinks is the next Springfield

In Aurora, Colorado, according to Donald Trump, “nests of bad people” with “big rifles” are taking over “big buildings”.

It is one of two unverified claims about immigration that the former president has made on the campaign trail in recent days and his comments about Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio have garnered the most attention.

But it is in Aurora, a sprawling satellite city of Denver with the greatest share of foreign-born residents in Colorado, that there is at least some validity to Trump’s claims.

In July, alleged armed members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) were filmed busting into the Edge of Lowry, a dilapidated apartment block in Aurora, to demand rent.

The video went viral, triggering widespread fears that the gang – which was designated a “foreign terrorist group” by Texas authorities on Tuesday – poses a threat in the area.

City officials in Aurora acknowledge the presence of the TdA, although they say their numbers are few and they operate in isolated areas.

Six million Venezuelans have fled in four years

More than six million Venezuelans have fled the politically and economically unstable country in the last four years – the largest external displacement crisis in Latin America’s recent history – with tens of thousands granted temporary asylum in the US.

Along Aurora’s East Colefax corridor, waves of prior Latin migration – from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – have created a virtually Spanish-speaking city, dotted with used car dealerships and taco food stands.

Now, Venezuelans have moved in.

Few residents were willing to discuss Trump’s claims about the gang this week and those that did generally declined to be named or photographed for fear, they said, of drawing attention or inviting reprisals.

Authorities believe undocumented migrants are more vulnerable to exploitation by the TdA, which the US Treasury Department says specialises in exploiting migrant women and girls across borders for sex trafficking and debt bondage. The Texan authorities described it as engaging in extortion, homicide and drug trafficking.

At Whispering Pines, another block reportedly once targeted by the TdA, residents denied the gang was still operating in the area after Aurora police rounded up alleged members for committing acts of violence against members of the migrant community.

Earlier this month, nine alleged TdA members were arrested and charged for 14 separate criminal incidents over the past 10 months, ranging from attempted murder to felony assault and discharging weapons, including at least seven events at apartment complexes in the city.

Alleged gang leader Jhonnarty Dejesus Pacheco-Chirinos, 24, and brother Jose “Cookie” Pacheco-Chirinos, 22, were arrested and are now in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

But other residents aren’t so sure the danger is over.

“We don’t know if they got them all,” said one who watched police swarm the apartment complex in a sweep. “They could come get us.”

A chain link fence had been erected around the property and also a local school.

Two other residents, Savvo and Kanani, said the Venezuelans migrants were the same as everyone else in the low-income neighbourhood except when they get “faded”, play their music loud “like they don’t care” and let their dogs out.

However, hold-ups of the kind alleged by Aurora city council member Danielle Jurinsky and posted on social media, can be “a problem”. Jurkinsky has accused the city of a “huge cover-up” around the issue.

Jesus, from Miranda, Venezuela, said he’d been released at the border on a temporary asylum visa after being detained for six months.

He’d been offered “low” unemployment benefits and had worked in landscaping at a mountain resort.

Trump has threatened mass deportations and Jesus had heard his comments.

“People are scared of Donald Trump,” he said, “but I try to focus on working and not pay attention to politics”. He said he avoided the TdA, adding: “I don’t know any of those type of people.”

A quarter of a mile away, another building associated with TdA activity, Fitzsimons Place, was last month vacated and boarded up by authorities.

The building’s out-of-state landlords claimed in August that the building had been taken over by TdA members.

One man said groups from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador kept their distance, adding that the Venezuelan neighbours lit fires in the parking lot and that their disputes led to shoot-outs.

“Mexicans don’t like the Venezuelans. They don’t show respect. They have no manners,” he said.

The influx of migrants to the US during the Biden administration, coupled with the economic disruption of the pandemic, inflation and an economic slowdown, has wreaked havoc with city budgets, all contributing to housing shortages and homelessness.

Republicans accuse Democrats of encouraging southern border immigration, including through the creation of “sanctuary cities” with policies that protect undocumented migrants. They say this is ultimately to help tilt the balance of legislative power by creating new Democrat-leaning areas. In particular, they believe the aim is to turn vital presidential election swing states firmly blue.

Aurora, which has a Republican mayor, has become a spill-over for tens of thousands of migrants bused from Texas to Denver, a Democrat-controlled “sanctuary city”.

Around 40,000 migrants have arrived in Denver since late 2022 and they now make up about 4.4 per cent of Denver’s 710,000 population, relatively more than the figure of 1.8 per cent for New York.

The city has spent, according to the Denver Gazette, $74 million on its response, including to buy 14,800 bus tickets to other cities.

Roll out the red carpet

Republican critics claim that Denver rolled out the red carpet for migrants by offering housing and benefits, partly in response to Trump’s 2016 election campaign pledge to build a border wall that Democrats considered unjust and racist. They blame Republicans for blocking immigration reform legislation.

But the immigration issue is a campaign liability for Democrats, as reproductive rights is for Republicans.

The Harris campaign has sought to downplay her vice presidential role as “border czar”, arguing that the assignment was to address the root causes of Latin migration not migration at the US-Mexico border.

Underscoring how contentious the issue is in the election campaign, US conservative media outlets jumped on comments by Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday about unemployment.

The apolitical official said: “If you’re having millions of people come into the labor force, then – and you’re creating 100,000 jobs – you’re going to see unemployment go up.”

These were interpreted as Mr Powell making reference to migrants coming into the 164 million strong US labor force. It grew by 7.9 million between 2012 and 2024, although this was a drop on the previous ten years, likely owing to baby boomers retiring.

The concerns about immigration are not just that large numbers are coming in, but who is arriving.

Tom Homan, a former director at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says the Biden administration “unsecured the border and released millions of people into the United States with no proper vetting. We know a large percentage are criminals...So what sanctuary cities actually do is provide sanctuary for criminals.”

Hispanic Coloradans are now more likely than the general population to consider the cost of housing, crime, drug use and undocumented immigration to be major problems.

Last year, then mayor Michael Hancock of Denver, a Republican, declared a state of emergency.

Mike Coffman, Aurora’s new Republican mayor, has struck a different tone since Trump made his debate comments, calling them “grossly exaggerated”.

“It is the responsibility of the appropriate federal authorities to enforce immigration law,” Mr Coffman said in a statement. “Please understand that issues experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole or large portions of it. TdA has not ‘taken over’ the city.”

However, Lauren Boebert, a Republican Congresswoman, whose district abuts Denver and Aurora to the south disagrees.

In a letter to Homeland secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Ms Boebert cited a law firm report that the TdA exerted a “stranglehold” on Whispering Pines, citing violent assaults, threats of murder, extortion, strongarm tactics, and child prostitution.

Earlier this month, Ms Boebert said she wanted to get the truth and information out to Coloradans “because, unfortunately, the fake news and liberal politicians with an agenda continue to downplay the violence and Venezuelan gang activity in Colorado”.

Trump clearly agrees, and he’s not the only one.

Cindy Romero, who in August shared viral footage of alleged TdA members carrying guns at an apartment complex where she then lived, said: “I’m imploring anyone to listen. Please do something. Don’t deny it, it wasn’t my imagination.”