A day after dramatic immigration raids in metro Aurora, no details about results

AURORA | Twenty-four hours after federal police officials launched raids at several apartment complexes in Aurora and Denver in search of more than 100 Venezuelan gang members and others linked to illegal drugs, no information has been released of who was arrested or for what.

Wednesday was a day of dramatic social media posts made by a variety of federal agencies that had planned a search for violent members of the Tren de Aragua gang and undocumented immigrants trafficking fentanyl and other drugs.

The accounts of residents and immigration activists paint a picture of mostly haphazard banging on apartment doors and asking residents for proof of citizenship. It’s unclear if any warrants were issued or served.

In a video taken and released by Homeland Security officials and released on X Wednesday morning, ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello said the operation involved high-level cooperation among many agencies, and was the result of so-called “sanctuary state” policies in Colorado.

“We’re here today to conduct an enforcement operation looking for Tren de Aragua, the gang members here from Venezuela,” Vitello said in the video, apparently recorded at one of the Denver raid locations. “Unfortunately we have to come to the community because we don’t get the cooperation we need from the jails. It would be so much easier and so much safer for our officers and agents if we could take these people into custody from a safe environment, but if we have to come out into the community to do this, that’s what we are going do.”

Vitello was referring to state law in Colorado, and other states, which forbid local local enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration officials on arresting people for suspect immigration offenses.

Aurora police chief Todd Chamberlain and others say they support the state law, ensuring that immigrants feel confident they can trust police to uphold the law and protect the public, without fear of being asked or accused of illegal immigration status.

Immigration rights activists say that, at least for the Aurora raids, federal officials appeared to be targeting residents potentially in violation of immigration law, not for criminal offenses.

“This action, taking place in Aurora, a focal point of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, is a direct attempt to criminalize immigrant communities,” Colorado Immigration Rights Council officials said in a statement. “

Aurora Councilmember Alison Coombs, who has been critical of local and federal efforts to round up immigrants solely on suspected immigration application status, lambasted the raids on Wednesday.

“It is both predictable and despicable that ICE raids are targeting places in Aurora and Denver where Venezuelans are known to live immediately after the current administration revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans,” Coombs.

She referred to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ending protections that shielded roughly 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation, leaving them with two months before they lose their right to work in the U.S. President Joe Biden has extended the TPS designation for Venezuelan immigrants and refugees for 15 months, just as he was leaving office. Noem’s move reverses that decisions, putting tens of thousands of immigrants at risk for deportation.

Coombs said she agrees with a local effort to ensure immigrants know their rights.

“Always ask for a warrant signed by a judge, ask to talk to a lawyer, and maintain your right to silence by not answering any questions,” Coombs said. “When living under fascism, we must do all that’s within our power to resist.”

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said the raids illustrated a larger problem.

“I think these raids are a symptom of a broken immigration system where it has been far too easy to come into the United States illegally and far too difficult to come into our country legally,” Coffman said in a statement. ” As a former member of Congress, this should be a wake-up call for the members of both parties to come together and pass a comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders, helps grow our economy, and is compassionate to those seeking an escape from persecution.”

The Aurora raids were garnering outright support from some residents and community leaders in the area being targeted for raids.

“If you come into our community to commit crime and sell drugs and prostitution, kidnap and torture people, and you come immigrated without documentation, you should be deported because you’re here actively committing crimes, not only against citizens but also other people who are undocumented immigrants,” said Stephen Elkins, who lives in a neighborhood of one of the raided apartments and is preparing to run for Aurora City Council in Ward I.

He said he’s sympathetic to immigrants in the community, but he thinks the raids are a net benefit for Aurora.

“I think it’s all happening so fast, and people are confused,” Elkins said. “My heart goes out to people who are confused and afraid that they may be deported, but at the same time, people who are committing violent crimes in our community against other people, other Venezuelans, against other American citizens, and they need to be held accountable.”

Some neighbors agreed with those comments.

Northwest Aurora resident David Bottoms, who lives on the same block as the Edge at Lowry, said he’s relieved the raids are happening, and that the Edge is being shut down. He said his car was stolen, and when the police returned it, the car was trashed and had instructions on how to use fentanyl.

“Watering my lawn twice last summer, I walked out into the middle of a gunfight,” Bottoms said. “So yeah, get them out of here.”

Bottoms and other neighbors started a neighborhood watch safety group last summer to be proactive, saying that they felt abandoned by their city and state leaders when crime soared after people were moved into the Edge. He said he doesn’t have a problem with immigrants, but he wants the criminals out, which includes people who entered the country illegally.

“That used to be a pretty decent, quiet neighborhood for the most part,” Bottoms said. “These people showed up, and we have random shootings all week long for no reason. There’s trash all over the place. Nobody really seems to care about your next-door neighbor. No respect for anyone.”

City officials have laid blame for the crime and slum-like conditions on the owners of the Edge apartment complex, citing absent and poor management for the dilapidated conditions and lack of security. 

Statewide, Democrats stepped up criticism of raids that swept up immigrants not accused of or linked to crimes.

“Reports that ICE was blocking school buses picking up kids and preventing families from leaving their homes are deeply troubling,” Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper said in a statement. “We all want criminals off of our streets. Securing our border doesn’t require targeting children and families who have committed no crimes.”

Aurora Democratic Congressman Jason Crow said public safety is critical.

“If someone, regardless of their immigration status, is committing violent crimes, they have no place in Colorado,” Crow said. “But I do not support rounding up our peaceful neighbors, family members, and small business owners who live, work, and contribute to our community.”

State lawmakers also jumped into the fray, telling immigrants and their families they would continue to push back against efforts to link documented and undocumented immigrants with criminals.

Aurora Democratic state Sen. Iman Jodeh said immigrant rights activists groups and others appear to have been successful and helping immigrants from being unlawfully carted off by instructing them on their rights and how to handle immigrant police confrontations.

She said the day filled with news about immigration arrests was unnerving.

“Martin Luther King said, ‘We must commit to what is said on paper, that all men are created equal.’ And then he continued to say that, ‘we must understand the urgency of this moment and today,’” Jodeh said. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that because right now, all people are not equal, but the allies of those who are targeted understand the urgency of now.”

The raids appeared to be widespread across the metro area.

9 News reports that they have confirmed some type of immigration or drug operations at: 

• Cedar Run apartments, near South Quebec Street and Leetsdale Drive

• The Edge at Lowry apartments, 1265 Dallas St.

• Whispering Pines apartments, 1357 Helena St.

• Jewell Apartments at South Colorado Boulevard and East Mexico Avenue.

• unnamed apartments at 1451 Macon St. in Aurora

• Ivy Crossing Apartments near South Quebec Street and East Harvard Avenue in Arapahoe County

• a trailer home in Thornton at West 100th Avenue and Zuni Street.

The recorded HSI official said today’s operation were not the only efforts the Aurora and Denver region will be targeted for.
“This is something that is just going to continue,” he said. “As long as there are bad guys on the streets, we’re going be out here arresting them and keeping the community safe.”

The four apartment complexes targeted as of mid-day include the Edge of Lowry and Whispering Pines in Aurora, and Cedar Run in Denver, as well as an apartment complex South Colorado Boulevard and East Mexico Avenue.

Witnesses and residents of Whispering Pines apartments in northwest Aurora said an immigration raid carried out by multiple federal agents raided the complex at about 4 a.m., taking an unknown number of residents.

One woman speaking to the Sentinel, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisal from local or federal police, said her husband was taken by agents at about 8 a.m.

She was not with him at the time and said her husband and other residents ran to the roof in an effort to escape the raid and at least one person was “tasered” by agents and arrested.

The woman said her husband was not a criminal and was not a member of any crime organization, but that he is a Mexican immigrant, who has lived here for 17 years and does not citizenship documents.

The man was on his cell phone with his wife during the raid, and he told the woman that agents kicked down the door of the apartment as or while he was running to the roof. At some point, one of the men on the roof he was with was “tasered” by agents and arrested.

The wife and an immigration rights activist at the apartment said those who called family members before their arrests said no warrants were presented. Several people said they had been apprised of “immigrant rights” during raids and either asked for or did not see warrants.

Kayla Frawley, an immigrant rights activist for Colorado People’s Alliance, said that after talking to residents in the building, as many as eight people were arrested in the raid.

Officials from Homeland Security said in a social media post that the operations were seeking more than 100 members of the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, in the operation.
“100+ members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were targeted for arrest and detention in Aurora, Colo., today by ICE and its partners,” the post on X stated.

A second Aurora operation occurred at a nearby northwest Aurora apartment.
Residents near the notorious Edge at Lowry apartments in northwest Aurora told the Sentinel that federal agents arrived at the apartment buildings early Tuesday and left by about 7 a.m.

Federal officials with the DEA and Homeland Security have not made public details about the operations.

It’s unclear how many arrests were made during the series of raides. Residents and immigrant activists said there were no arrests made at the Edge.

The apartment complex is currently being shut down by the city and few residents are left. A man working at the complex said only 23 units were now occupied of the Edge’s 60 units.

Residents in and near the Edge complex said they saw agents from the FBI, the DEA and ICE at the complex and that some of the agents put “red tape” on the doors of some apartments. It’s unclear at this time if agents intend to return for residents of those marked apartments.
A man working at the apartment, saying he was contracted by the City of Aurora, and asked not to be identified, said he did not see any doors with “red tape.”

“We did not see them take anyone away,” one resident said, asking not to be identified for fear of being harassed by federal agents.

A larger operation took place at Cedar Run apartments in Denver, where a large bus has arrived and numerous federal agents are in and around the complex. The complex is at Quebec Street and Leetsdale Avenue, and has links to previous Venezuelan immigrant issues in Aurora.

As of Wednesday afternoon, none of the agencies had released details of who was contacted, arrested or detained.

Days of speculation followed by scrutiny

The operation follows news about Buckley Space Force Base coming off the block as a site for detaining or transporting people arrested for immigration law or other offenses followed a chaotic last week rife with rumors about imminent raids.

“I have been told that it will not be used to house immigrants and detainees,” Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow said Monday during a press conference at the base. “It will only be used as a staging location for law enforcement and a coordination center for ongoing operations.”

Denver region Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials did not comment.

Crow, a Democrat who represents one of the most diverse congressional districts in the nation, said he will continue his ongoing oversight of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense to ensure the mission of Buckley remains aligned with national security interests and not political agendas.

Crow did not address leaked rumors from last week insisting that Trump administration agencies were imminently ready to descend on Aurora for some type of mass immigrant round-up or raids.

During the presidential campaign, Trump claimed that Aurora was overrun by a criminal gang from Venezuela and used the rhetoric to drive home his plan for mass deportation. He named his mass deportation plan, “Operation Aurora.” Aurora officials said Trump’s statements were overblown.

Despite saying he felt reassured about what the real mission for Buckley would be in Trump’s mass deportation plans, Crow said he remains concerned about a lack of transparency in how federal immigration enforcement is being planned and executed. 

“A mass deportation is different by definition,” Crow said. “The word ‘mass’ means they’re going after a larger category of folks, otherwise law-abiding people. These are our business owners. These are families. These are mixed-status families in many cases.”

Crow pointed to Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan saying on multiple occasions that even parents of mixed-status families, including those with children receiving medical care, could face detention.

“Let’s not be fooled about what the President and the administration is talking about doing,” Crow said. “Nobody I know has any problem with enforcing against violent criminals to keep our communities safe. But using our military to do something that is, in my view, immoral and counterproductive to actual comprehensive immigration reform will gut our economy and remove a significant portion of our workforce. That’s not what Americans signed up for.”

News last week about possibly holding arrested immigrants at Buckley angered immigrant rights groups in the region.

“The Administration’s announcement it will utilize Buckley (Spaceforce) Base is an affront to our Constitution and an insult to the commitment service members have made to protect it,” Colorado Rapid Response Network said in a statement last week.

The project will “enable U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stage and process criminal aliens within the U.S. for an operation taking place in Colorado,” according to a statement issued by Buckley officials. “Military personnel are not involved in this operation.

As a combat veteran and former veterans advocate, Crow said he is concerned about misuse of the military by the Trump administration and the impact of law enforcement operations on troop morale and recruitment.

“I’ve heard anecdotally from various service members,” Crow said. “Folks are very worried about the politicization of the military. What that means for the separation between politics and the military, but also what that means for the morale of our troops.”

Buckley is a tier-one national security facility handling critical intelligence and missile warning operations, and any diversion of resources could jeopardize military readiness, Crow said.

“This is a facility that does no-fail missions for our national security,” Crow said. “Our troops around the world rely on what happens behind this fence line. Americans rely on what happens behind this fence line.”

Crow said he is committed to returning to Buckley for regular reviews and check-ins to ensure federal immigration operations remain lawful and ethical.

“We will make sure our service members and military are being used properly and that no unlawful activities occur,” Crow said. “The best thing to do when there are reports and rumors in a community is just to show up, start poking around, and get information for yourself.”

Worry about imminent raids in and near Aurora

After earlier reporting that Aurora was expected to be a target for an immigration operation Jan. 30, NBC News and other media outlets reported that the effort has been postponed by federal officials because of media leaks.

Requests by the Sentinel for clarification from three federal agencies were unanswered or declined last week.

“The agency temporarily called off the operation due to media leaks, NBC reported, citing two sources familiar with the planning,” NBC News reported online Wednesday. “One of the sources told NBC that the leaks posed an operational security risk for officers.”

Officials with Gov. Jared Polis’ office told the Sentinel they had never not received any notice about any federal operations in the state.

“Colorado has no information about this rumored operation in Aurora at this time,” said Shelby Weiman, press secretary for Gov. Polis.

Crow said the Trump initiative is off base.

“Law enforcement should be targeting violent criminals, not raiding churches and schools to target families,” Crow said. “Aurora is one of the most diverse districts in the country. Immigrants live here, work, and pay taxes in our community. They are our neighbors, own small businesses, and go to school with our children. Surely we can fix our broken immigration system while having a humane and orderly immigration policy that does not target families and children.”

That’s when news about the use of Buckley SF Base drew swift criticism from Crow and other officials.

Aurora city officials addressing the news about looming immigrant raids said that local law enforcement is not involved in planning or executing the Aurora DHS operation.

“We are not involved in the development and activation of such plans,” Aurora spokesperson Ryan Luby said in a statement. “As we have said numerous times previously, Colorado state law prohibits local governments from engaging in typical immigration-specific enforcement or detention. We focus on enforcing state and local law.”

The city added that while it will cooperate with federal partners as required by law, its role remains limited under state restrictions. 

“As we always have, we will work with our federal partners and follow federal law and directives as they apply to our community and as we are allowed. We will always follow state and federal law,” Luby said in the statement.

Aurora Public Schools officials have sent letters to parents explaining how schools would handle encounters with immigration officials.

Aurora Public Schools told parents in a letter sent home with students Wednesday that families should be prepared in case of any type of immigration enforcement, inside or out of school.

“School leaders will follow clear procedures to protect students and their information. We will contact our legal office and follow the proper legal steps before sharing any information. Immigration officers would only be allowed in a school building if they have a judicial warrant. Parents and guardians will be informed if any requests are made regarding their child. Please know that school staff do not know students’ immigration status and we would never ask for their immigration status,” the letter states.

Cherry Creek School District officials said they were committed to ensuring a safe and inclusive environment for students amid potential uncertainty. 

“We continue to have conversations with local, state and federal agencies and partners as we plan for a variety of scenarios that could impact our students, staff and community,” Lauren Snell, public information officer for Cherry Creek Public Schools, said in a statement. “As a public education institution, we remain fully committed to do everything we can to ensure our students and schools are safe and welcoming spaces and that all students have equal access to quality education.”

Immigration rights organizations in the region said the news of operations is divisive and causing dangerous fear across several communities.

“Reports of planned ICE raids in Aurora targeting immigrants under the guise of public safety are deeply alarming,” officials from the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition said in a statement. “These operations are not about safety — they are about criminalizing immigrants, tearing families apart, and fueling the private prison industry’s profits at the expense of human suffering.”

Other Aurora immigrant news spread from New York about the metro area last week.

An operation in the the New York City Bronx last week snared Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, who authorities said was one of several men, including members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, who entered an apartment in Aurora last summer and were recorded on a widely viewed video. Several of the suspects were previously arrested in Colorado and New York.

The incident caught President Donald Trump’s attention during the presidential campaign, and he announced a plan called “Operation Aurora” to target migrant gangs. The video led Trump to claim that Aurora had been taken over by the gang, which city officials denied.

In an arrest warrant, Aurora police said Zambrano-Pacheco was also wanted in a kidnapping in which at least 20 armed men abducted and threatened two people in late June. In addition, police said Zambrano-Pacheco was with a group of armed men before a shooting occurred shortly after the apartment incident that was caught on video.

Two arrest warrants accused Zambrano-Pacheco of kidnapping, burglary and felony menacing. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer or if he was a member of Tren de Aragua.

Local and federal authorities, including Aurora police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigated the apartment incident for months beginning when Joe Biden was still president.

DEA agents rush into a vacant building on the 6600 block of Federal Boulevard in Adams County early Jan. 26 as part of a drug raid officials say involved “dozens” of members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. 

DEA officials said the raid came after months of investigation and was not part of a new direction in enforcement dictated by the Trump administration.

DEA agents, working with unnamed local police officials, ATF agents and Homeland Security officials said the gathering was an “invite-only” event, and that guns and illegal drugs were confiscated during the arrest, according to the social media post.

On Saturday, hundreds of protesters turned out to Aurora’s Fletcher Plaza on a cold and snowy January day to rally against Trump administration threats of mass deportations.

The rally drew as many as 700 immigrants, activists and allies determined to challenge national and local anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies affecting Aurora’s diverse population.

“When we stand together organized in resistance, we can break the machine of fear and greed that these billionaires are building,” said Moira Casado Cassidy. “The world that we actually deserve is possible.”

Colorado Dems critical of new immigration law

Trump last week signed a new immigration bill, which local Democrats and others across the nation oppose, saying it precludes due process.

The bill passed 64-35, with 12 Democrats joining with Republicans voting in favor.

Both Colorado Democratic senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper voted no on the bill.

Crow, after the passage and signing, has also been a vocal critic.

Passage of the Laken Riley Act — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign — was a sign of how Congress has shifted sharply right on border security and immigration. Passage came just minutes before Trump signed the first of his executive orders.

“We don’t want criminals coming into our country,” Trump told supporters at the Capitol last month. 

“Anyone who commits a crime should be held accountable. That’s why I voted to pass the Laken Riley Act,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said on social media after its passage. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said that a “secure border” and support for immigration were “fully compatible.”

“If you come into this country illegally and you commit a crime, you should not be free to roam the streets of this nation,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who helped push the bill through the Senate.

The legislation would require federal authorities to detain migrants accused of crimes, including shoplifting, and would grant states new legal standing to challenge federal immigration decisions, including by immigration judges.

Critics of the bill say that provision will open the door for Republican state attorneys general to wage a legal battle against federal immigration decisions, injecting even more uncertainty and partisanship into immigration policy.

Currently, the Laken Riley Act has no funding attached to it, but Democrats on the Appropriations Committee estimate the bill would cost $83 billion over the next three years, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has estimated it would need to nearly triple the number of detention beds and conduct more than 80 removal flights per week to implement the requirements, according to the memo.

“That’s a lot of money to spend on a bill that is going to cause chaos, punish legal immigrants and undermine due process in America — all while drawing resources away from true threats,” said Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a floor speech last week.

Crow, Hickenlooper and Bennet joined other Democrats who also raised concerns about its impact on immigrants who have received deportation protection from an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Trump sought to end the program during his first term, but he also occasionally expressed openness to allowing those covered by it to stay in the U.S.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story