Former President Donald J. Trump further escalated the xenophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has fueled his political career in a speech in Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, criticizing local Republican officials about illegal immigration. He repeated false and grossly exaggerated claims that had been refuted by others.
Aurora has been fending off false rumors about the city for weeks. And conservative Republican Mayor Mike Coffman said in a statement Friday that he wants to show Trump that Aurora is a “pretty safe city.”
However, the Denver suburb of Aurora was such a central part of his speech that Trump even detoured to Colorado, which has not voted Republican in presidential elections since 2004, to make his point. made debunked claims about the aurora borealis. I attended in person at a gathering at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center.
And in a meandering 80-minute speech, which has been debunked by local officials, Trump said Aurora Island had been “invaded and conquered” and called the United States an “occupied nation.” He repeated the claim that he had “demanded the death penalty.” “We ban immigrants who kill American citizens,” he said, reinstating a promise to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of drug cartels and criminal organizations without due process. Ta.
The law allows for the immediate deportation of people from countries that are at war with the United States, have invaded the United States, or have engaged in “predatory aggression.” It wasn’t at all clear that the law could be used in the way Trump was proposing.
The false story that Aurora, Colorado’s third-largest city, was taken over by armed Venezuelans grew out of a dispute over housing.
CBZ Management, an out-of-state landlord, was under pressure from the City of Aurora regarding poor conditions at three of its apartment complexes. The landlord said in July that armed leaders from Torren de Aragua had taken over the complex and violently evicted the property manager, leaving the property manager unable to make repairs requested by tenants and city officials. I informed the city. The claim was amplified by news reports and politicians, especially after Trump began making the claim a regular part of his speeches, even after city officials said the claim was exaggerated and untrue. I walked alone.
The city released a statement Friday fact-checking the former president ahead of the rally.
“Gangs have not ‘taken over’ the city,” he said. “The exaggerated claims fueled through social media and some news outlets are simply not true. Selected individuals and organizations have mischaracterized our city based on specific incidents. It’s a tragedy.”
He went on to say that in Aurora, serious crime is down more than 17%. “The city is actively pursuing all legal means to ensure that CBZ managers are held accountable for their properties.”
After the rally, Mayor Coffman said he was “disappointed that the former president was not able to experience more of our city,” adding, “The reality is that there are concerns about Venezuelan gang activity in our city.” And our state has been grossly exaggerated and has unfairly damaged our city’s identity and sense of safety.”
“The city and state have not been ‘taken over’, ‘invaded’ or ‘occupied’ by immigrant gangs,” he said. “The incident in Aurora, a city of 400,000 people, was isolated to a small number of specific apartment complexes, and our dedicated police officers have acted and will continue to act in response to these concerns. Dew.”
Trump’s visit to Aurora comes as he continues to ratchet up his harsh rhetoric against immigrants, falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants are fueling a wave of “immigration crime.” Available national crime statistics do not support that claim. But Trump relies on anecdotal evidence to make his case.
Trump’s xenophobic message was echoed by other speakers at the rally, including Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert. Just before Trump’s remarks, his chief immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, made anti-immigrant rhetoric a central part of his appeal to the crowd to vote.
“You have the right to want a country of Americans, by Americans, and only for Americans,” Miller said.
His false claims extend to another city, Springfield, Ohio, where he continues to falsely claim that Haitian immigrants who are legally in Haiti are “actually illegal,” calling them illegal immigrants. The scope continued to expand. .
Many of Springfield’s Haitian immigrants have Temporary Protected Status, which provides people from countries in crisis, usually after a natural disaster or political upheaval, with the ability to remain in the United States legally, regardless of how they entered the country. giving an opportunity. (During last month’s presidential debate, Trump falsely claimed that immigrants were eating household pets.)
At the rally, Trump continued to dehumanize violent immigrants, calling them “animals,” “savage thugs” and “sadistic monsters.” At one point, he falsely claimed that Ms. Harris had “infested” the Aurora building with gang members.
Trump’s speech was dominated by immigration, but he also attacked the press, disparaged Harris and veered into other topics. At one point, he appears to have confused the company that bears his name with his presidency. “The Trump Organization, the Trump Organization, it was great when I started it, it’s great now,” he said. “But I want to go back to the Trump administration, because the Trump administration is going to get things done.”
Trump acknowledged in his speech that his trip to the reliably blue state of Colorado was meant to draw attention to his message on immigration.
The Aurora rally was one of several stops in blue states he makes in the run-up to elections, a time when campaigns are typically concentrated in battleground states. They held a rally in Coachella, California, on Saturday, and are scheduled to hold a rally at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan later this month.
Michael C. Bender and Jazmine Ulloa contributed reporting.
