AURORA | Hundreds of community members gathered in the snowy cold Saturday at Fletcher Plaza to protest President Donald Trump’s threat of mass deportations, the demonization of immigrants, housing injustices and exploitation by the ultra-rich.
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.”
Cassidy, a Denver South High School teacher and a member, spoke about how many of her immigrant students have stopped coming to school for fear of being deported. She and other speakers said they were concerned about the fear Trump’s administration has spread across the Aurora area.
Immigrants and supporters say they are concerned about Trump’s threat of “Operation Aurora,” which has stoked fears among local immigrants of being rounded up in raids, separated from their children and families at school and work.
“What really happened here at some apartment complexes just not far from here on Dallas Street, involving the housing of some of our migrant newcomers, they were demonized and had made national news,” said Mateos Alvarez, the organizing director for Somos Aurora. “And ever since then, Aurora has been attacked on the national scale.”
Aurora found itself at the nexus of controversy since the summer when national media and Trump focused on a three northwest apartment complexes were enveloped in issues surrounding Venezuelan immigrants and isolated incidences of gang violence and crimes.
The Edge at Lowry Apartment complex attracted attention by the national media and the Trump presidential campaign last year after armed alleged members of a Venezuelan gang were caught on video entering a unit last summer. Critics say Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky escalated media attention by promoting false rhetoric that violent immigrant gangs had taken over parts of the city.
Friday, Aurora city officials outlined their plan to close down the Edge at Lowry apartment complex, citing ongoing criminal activity, including a recent kidnapping situation and poor property management as the driving factors behind the decision. City officials have repeatedly stated that the condition of The Edge and two similar units was the result of poor management by property owners.
The national attention has continued to spark fear of deportation of local immigrants and has resulted in discrimination of local Venezuelans in Aurora, according to multiple reports. Activists and residents say legally hired Venezuelan immigrants have reported losing work, potential work and have had hours cut because of concerns about their nationality.
The community’s frustration also extends beyond the national narrative to local policy decisions. Last year, the Aurora City Council passed two resolutions that declared the city would not assist any new immigrants who came to Aurora and would not use municipal funds to support them. This prompted the community organizations to step up and provide housing, food and other aid to the affected families.
“It was us, the community, the good Samaritans who came together and responded and brought them into our households, into our buildings, and we found a way to integrate them into our community,” Alvarez said.
Maria Jimenez, a teacher and a member of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said she was deported and separated from her children for nearly five years.
“There were sleepless nights, crying. I could barely sleep thinking about my children,” Jimenez said. “We couldn’t even talk about the psychological consequences of that separation.”
Jimenez said they need to continue sharing their stories, building unity and fighting back against the hostile rhetoric and policies that target immigrants.
“We have to keep fighting so that they don’t continue to separate our families and our community,” Jimenez said. “Together, we’re going to struggle to change the narrative that is out there about us.”
The crowd then took to the street for a short march to the Edge at Lowry.
“Trump, Escucha. Estamos en la Lucha,” the crowd chanted, which is Spanish for, “Listen, Trump. We are in the fight.”
Community members and organizers from the East Colfax Community Collective and the Party for Socialism and Liberation came together to voice their concerns over the demonization of immigrants in the area.
The march made a stop in front of the Edge at Lowry Apartments, where the residents are still facing significant challenges, including inadequate housing conditions and fear of deportation.
“We are the immigrants,” said Nate Kassa, an Ethiopian immigrant and organizer with the East Colfax Community Collective. “We are the Black, brown, Latino, Asian, working-class people of this community, and we are fighting for a future where we can afford to live here, raise our children, and live in safe, dignified housing.”
Kassa repeated city officials’ claims that CBZ Management, the complex’s owner, was to blame for much of the resident’s hardship because of their neglect of the property and prioritizing profit over the well-being of the community.
“We can’t let these rich, wealthy developers keep on coming, trampling over our neighbors and thinking that they’re gonna get away with it,” Kassa said.
Kassa and other organizers from the Party for Socialism and Liberation said the rhetoric from President Trump and his administration has scapegoated immigrants for broader societal issues.
“My grandfather risked his life time and time again to cross the Sonoran Desert, just to give our family an opportunity to be on what was originally Mexican land,” said Alfonso Espino, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
He said his grandfather did not lose his best friend in the desert so that he could see hateful rhetoric resurface time and time again.
“Trump saw an opportunity to demonize immigrants so thoroughly that he could try to blame all the problems of this country on us,” Kassa said. “As if immigrants are the ones owning slums, raising rents and denying healthcare.”
The speakers and organizers ask community members to help organize more strategies for helping the local immigrant population on Monday at the Denver Liberation Center.
“We are out organized, but we’re taking care of that,” said Katie Leonard, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Denver. “We are going to get together and fight back together.”
It appears that some of our guests are refusing to leave when their time is up. Entitlement run amuck!
Send all these illegals home . We don’t want them here taking our resources. Bye bye. They don’t deserve to be here.
You really don’t understand this, do you? Do you realize how much agriculture depends undocumented immigrants? Do you understand how it would affect the food markets if these “illegals” were not there?
Go ahead, google it. This has been covered extensively. Farmers themselves have said that without these workers, they would be unable to do business.
Do your homework.
“We can’t get rid of low-wage migrant peon labor because it will hurt the revolution, comrade!”
Some time ago, Jeff referenced an article from what appeared to be a trustworthy source, that did indeed indicate that major U.S. agricultural producers report that they do not have enough workers to meet their needs. They have been using foreigners on HB-1 visas (work visas), but that even this wasn’t enough. There were two important conclusions to make from this article. The first is that there are indeed shortages of workers in agriculture. The second is that there are legal means to meet these needs without allowing unrestrained illegal immigration. Our government might simply increase enticements to foreign workers to meet demand. Unlike what we see today, these would be legal remedies to worker shortages allowing temporary residence while working here.
I am going to guess that not a single farm worker lives in Original Aurora or was attending a protest gathering at Fletcher Plaza in the dead of winter. Also, there is no reason that farm workers have to be illegal. Get them in under guest worker visas.
Sure. Just find an employer who will sponsor them. And pay them more. And maybe house them. And, of course, report everything to the government and ensure the workers are healthy and properly treated.
The visas are H-2A visas, requiring a sponsor. An employer who hires H-2As has to take into account housing for the workers and government compliance. There are fees and minimum wages, etc. A lot of employers don’t want to pay the money all this takes. Hence, they hire who works cheapest and won’t put them in contact with the government. And the money the workers do make generally goes back to their families in their home country. Farms throughout the South and West don’t want to pay what it takes to do all this legally. And if you’re hungry, with a family to support, you work for whoever gives you an income and to hell with regulations. Remember, these “employers” are defying the law as much as the migrant worker.
It takes two to tango – one to do the work, and one to pay that person while keeping it all under the table and off the books.
“Illegal” workers come to the country because some American employers don’t care about the law, just cheap labor. Nobody hires an immigrant laborer without knowing the law and complying with it, or knowing the law and lying about it.
And the employers are as American as you are. Except they’re law breakers. And exploiters.
When socialism is part of your agenda you’re not taken seriously! This is 2025 not 1825! The laws were violated and these people have the nerve to complain? Good luck trying that in most countries around the world, also ask Maoist China how socialism works!
Protesters choose to ignore the fact that these are illegal aliens who have thwarted immigration laws causing a tremendous drain on the metro area’s financial stability, an increase in homelessness, and crime. We can’t afford to support them; they need to go home.
There’s been confirmation through the grapevine “Operation Aurora” is no longer words from some political rally. The reality of change, to the past disorder owed directly to four years of Biden/Harris and company, is now possible.
There’s too, too many racists here. The only one’s entitled to say “go back!” is Native Americans. Way too many racists and they were rewarded for an Insurrection… Really?
Don’t confuse them with facts. It leads them to confusion and panic.
It’s not 2020, malbushim, that Kafkatrapping doesn’t work anymore.
Please understand that 50% of the work completed in the harvesting of fruits and vegetables is done by undocumented immigrants according to the Farm Labor Economic data. Another 20% are legal immigrants. It’s not just in California, but in the midwest. Who is willing to do this backbreaking labor other than migrants, especially with historically low unemployment? Now, let’s move on to construction, where 25% are migrants. Who among Americans will get up on a roof in 98° heat and 85% humidity in Houston to install shingles? Who will fill nanny roles, mow lawns, clean houses, and on? If the deportation of migrants is indiscriminant, tons of food will rot unpicked and prices will rise! That is a fact!
Assuming your statistics are accurate, and I have no reason to believe they are not, the real question here is are we going to have law and order here, or chaos and anarchy. American citizens have the right to decide who enters our country, how many, for what reason and for how long. Suggesting that we allow unrestrained illegal immigration because we have some job openings is completely nonsensical. We currently have thousands of times more unskilled laborers in our country than needed. What we need now are more doctors, teachers, healthcare professionals and nurses. Maybe we can encourage more of these professionals to immigrate here, but within legal means.
Please understand that your sclerotic agricultural model needs to be thrown in the dustbin of history in favor of innovation that doesn’t require mass peon stoop labor to accomplish it. That you think such innovation is neither possible nor desirable says much for how your side views blue collar work.
Then all these people are lying and refusing to “innovate”?
You are blind to the way this works. If farms lost money by doing this the way they are, they wouldn’t do it.
But they do. Because sponsoring immigrants legally, paying for housing legally, paying for even minimal health costs, and paying the taxes due for all these workers (which, of course, the immigrants never see) is a whole lot more expensive than doing it under the table.
GET LEGAL! IT’s EASY if you can other than that …. SORRY !
“Kassa and other organizers from the Party for Socialism and Liberation”
aka, Marxists.