AURORA | A quartet of conservative immigration reformers campaigning for Republican 6th Congressional District candidate John Fabbricatore on Thursday dove into the controversy over a disputed narrative that Venezuelan gangsters have overrun Aurora.
The group called for a tighter southern border and, closer to home, a crackdown on what they portray as rampant local violence by members of a Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua, otherwise known as TdA.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Homan, a former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for the Trump administration, joined Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Rifle, and Rep. Greg Lopez, R-Parker, to stump for Fabbricatore. He is a former regional ICE official trying to unseat Democratic incumbent Rep. Jason Crow, D-Aurora, on an anti-immigration agenda.
The speakers spent much of the evening repeating what police say is a false narrative made repeatedly by far-right Aurora politicians and national media influencers that TdA gangs are overrunning apartment complexes and neighborhoods in Aurora and extorting tenants for rent money.
In the past few days, Aurora police have announced that 10 people have been identified as having ties to the TdA gang, and four have been arrested. Still, those numbers pale compared to arrests of non-Venezuelan gang members in the city, according to reporting in the Denver Post.
“I’m here to tell you as an Hispanic American: the Hispanics here in Colorado do not want the border open. We want it shut down. We don’t want this gang in our communities. And this is all the fault of President Biden and Kamala Harris. They have opened up the borders and we are being invaded,” Lopez said.
It wasn’t clear whether Lopez was describing TdA members in particular or Venezuelan migrants in general when he said “wild dogs” are pervasive in Aurora.
“Look at what they do. They go around, they create havoc, and if we allow them to take over a certain area, they’re going to breed and they’re going to spread,” he said.
Lopez sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week urging him to apprehend, detain, and deport any members of the TdA and any other known foreign criminal gangs within the United States.
Boebert is the conservative firebrand incumbent from the Western Slope who is now seeking the Front Range seat Lopez was appointed to when Rep. Ken Buck resigned in July.
She told rally participants she lived as a child Aurora, which she praised as “still a red city,” a salute to Aurora’s Republican-majority city council. She made a point of lauding one of those Republican council members, Danielle Jurinsky, who owns JJ’s Place, the sports bar that hosted Thursday’s event.
“What she has done on the front lines of this issue, of the invasion taking place in Aurora, is insurmountable,” Boebert said. “She, against all odds, went out and spoke the truth and had every liberal come against her for it.”
Jurinsky has led efforts to create a news and social media frenzy about TdA’s presence in the city, a message that Mayor Mike Coffman largely has parroted over the last several weeks.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also has echoed their allegations, saying Wednesday that Venezuelans were “taking over the whole town.”
Their claims have been met with fierce criticisms from Democrats, including Gov. Jared Polis, who say they are fear-mongering and spreading misinformation.
Immigrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries who live in Aurora say they are being wrongly portrayed as criminals. Many said during a press conference this week that they are fearful of Coffman’s false claims that the city government is trying to shut down their apartment complexes with emergency court orders.
Residents said they are resentful of his and Jurinsky’s wavering defense of the out-0f-state landlord who has ignored their complaints about leaks, mold and vermin prevalent in the buildings.
Boebert slammed Crow for not addressing what she called an “invasion” by gangsters.
“When people are being assaulted and sent to the hospital or extorted, he’s silent,” she said, referring to assertions by Jurinsky, over repeated police denials, that TdA gang members have stolen rent money from apartment residents and physically injured others.
Crow, in a phone interview later Thursday evening, sharply countered the narrative by Boebert and others, saying, “There is no gang takeover of Aurora, Colorado” and “no evidence of gang takeovers” of apartment complexes in the city. Besides, he said, “This is not about me, and that’s not what’s relevant.
“What’s relevant here is that you have folks who have lived in squalid conditions for many years, and that we have a huge affordable housing crisis in Aurora. We have immigrants and refugees who are trying to find security and peace and start a new life. And you have politicians, in this case, who are misrepresenting and distorting the facts for political purposes…”
File Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado
He lashed back at the quartet of Republicans for “demonizing immigrants and refugees in a way that…leads to racist, bigoted, hurtful rhetoric.”
“That’s what’s going on here, and it’s frankly disgusting that Jurinsky and Boebert and others will purposely distort and lie just to get them clicks on social media or get some national media attention,” he said.
Crow highlighted his support for bipartisan immigration policies. He also touted his efforts to help secure federal funding to provide services for the recent influx of Venezuelan and other migrants to Colorado, and to offset the costs state and local agencies have incurred because of their arrival.
Fabbricatore also took shots at Crow and held top officials in the Aurora Police Department and city government responsible for what he suggested has been a cover-up of the extent and severity of TdA’s violence and criminality. Those officials have in the past weeks tried to temper and in some cases correct misinformation by Coffman and Jurinsky, who hold sway over the department.
“I’m really pissed off at their leadership right now,” Fabbricatore said of APD.
“I actually blame this on the city manager. No one mentions the city’s manager’s name. They all want to say this is (Mayor) Mike Coffman. Mayor Mike Coffman’s really not in charge of all this. There’s a city manager that makes hundreds of thousands of dollars more than Mike Coffman makes, and we’re not calling him out. So I’m calling out Mr. Batchelor today.”
Jason Batchelor did not respond to an inquiry late Thursday seeking response to the biggest applause line of the evening. Aurora is a council-manager form of government. The City Council appoints the city manager, who oversees all city employees and the city’s police chief.
Roy, a far-right attorney representing a Texas congressional district that includes part of Austin, mocked Crow for what he alleged was voting like a progressive liberal, but feigning to be moderate.
“You’re not a moderate, Jason,” he said. “You’re not fooling any of us.”
Aside from his warnings about Venezuelan gangs “being released onto the streets of Aurora, Colorado” like some kind of virus, Roy also spoke about the national debt and “indoctrination by trans teachers.”
“Jason Crow is promoting that, voting for that, he’s for that,” he said.
Homan is currently a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. The decades-old group recently became embroiled in controversy for creating Project 2025, a far-right policy blueprint written for a second Trump presidency.
Homan lauded Fabbricatore’s previous work at ICE, and he spoke about “open borders” not only inviting murderous Venezuelan gang members to the U.S., but also increasing fentanyl smuggling and sex- and child-trafficking.
He told the crowd, “I’ve been called a racist, and white nationalist, whatever you want to call it. Frankly, I don’t give a sh** about what people say about me.”
Homan promised to be at the side of Trump, his former boss, fighting TdA in Aurora if and when Trump takes back the presidency in 2025.
“We’re gonna come here, we’re gonna stop this sh** from happening,” he said.
Aurora resident Scott Forney said he didn’t mean to attend Thursday’s event when he sat down to play in a free poker league that the sports bar sponsors. The out-of-work data analyst, now driving for Uber, said he has experienced no problems with Venezuelan immigrants in the city and is “withholding judgment” about the alleged gang crisis because “it all seems a bit sensational.”
“Maybe it could be way out of line,” Forney said. “But immigrants are easy scapegoats and, after a little fact-checking I’ve been doing, it seems kind of like a nothing-burger to me.”
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This should not be a political issue. There are more than 30 gangs in Aurora, so why does TdA get all the attention? Why is it that the TdA “takeover” is only at properties owned or managed by CBZ Management? Why is CBZ spending money on big law firms and a PR firm rather than on improving and securing its properties to deter criminal activities? To its credit, CBZ has been able to flip the narrative and has gone, in some media circles, from an out-of-state slum lord to a hapless victim. Thankfully, there was a political rally at JJs — with special guest star Lauren “Beetlejuice” Boebert — to remind us that Trump killed the bipartisan border security bill because MAGA politics are more important than our safety.
So stupid Chip Roy from Texas joins another brain trust in Bobert, Jurinski, and Fabbricatore to reinforce the false narrative about the Venezuelan gang in Aurora after we learned that the residents of the building denied that the gang was a huge presence. The Washington GOP pols had their chance to legislate a border law, but they refused on Trump’s order. Now who’s playing politics?
“reinforce the false narrative about the Venezuelan gang in Aurora after we learned that the residents of the building denied that the gang was a huge presence. ”
Probably because Venezuelan gangs are next-level violent and will murder them if they don’t deny there’s a problem, or are part of the gang themselves. This is also the reason the police are so reluctant to go too hard into the paint on them, because these gangs are known to target the police and their families. They aren’t like American gangs who shoot at each other and then take off when the cops are en route.
“The Washington GOP pols had their chance to legislate a border law, but they refused on Trump’s order.”
Trump didn’t order anything. The “border bill” you supported was trash and wouldn’t have slowed down illegal immigration at all. It was absolutely rejected on its merits.
” Now who’s playing politics?”
Yeah, we know, Mike, your side hates it when you get resistance to your dumb political theology.
Were the Republican members of Congress among those who defeated a bipartisan immigration bill in the House of Representatives? The answer to this question is YES! They answered the call of Presidential candidate Donald J Trump, who wanted the bill killed — so that he could continue to use immigration and immigrants as the bad guys in his effort to regain the White House. Shameful!
Literally nothing in your post is accurate.
Seems to me it is prepresentative Crow and not the republicans who is conflating Venezualan gangs with Venezualan’s or all illegal migrants or all migrants. That said, the problem is isolated and has many causes, including not just our border policies, but the longstanding issue of absentee landlords depreciating their properties to suck every last penny out of them before they inevitably have to sell them for redevelopment.
Reporter Susan Greene, is correct there was a fund raiser for Fabbricatore at JJ’s. The meeting was from 5:30 to 6:30. “The speakers spent much of the evening” I guess you can label 60 minutes anyway you want.
What is missing here is the mention of the strange letter recently sent to city leadership, we have learned from a reporter Brian Masse. The creditor holding the note of these apartments managed by CBZ management is hiring a law firm to look into the risk they have in their investments within the city. Ironically, right where the gangs have been identified to be roaming around.
Could this lender be so concerned because no one in the city has listened to the increasing gang problem? Are these apartments because of the gang infestation losing so much money they are very close to default? APD has said, it’s no big deal. Last night, Mitch Morrissey a prior Denver DA (Dem) suggest different using crime data a non-profit org. has access to and graphed the stats. https://kdvr.com/news/local/report-aurora-crimes-trending-down-but-rising-at-gang-associated-addresses/
Let’s not forget the task force has been created to investigate what situation, Governor Polis calls a councilwoman’s wild imagination versus what really is happening. The empirical evidence seems to favor what these four speakers were talking about. Despite what Greene, is typically used to hearing, these four speakers did not sugar coat the dangerous consequences of Jason Crow’s thinking. They don’t have to embellish one thing.
If these gangs are swallowing the rent and Aurora police can prove it, we have an organized crime racketeering case. Maybe the new chief has that kind of overall experience, rolls his sleeves up, start to make different decisions when he shows up.
But for whatever reason, in the time being, the city squirms around and continues with disagreement to serious gang infestation, with predictably Jason Crow, is no different.
I want to know why no one is pinning responsibility on Nicolas Maduro, the corrupt socialist dictator under whose regime a third of the Venezuelan population chose to flee. Was it not Biden who chose to resume buying their oil instead of seeking Maduro’s removal and seeking fair, transparent elections? Now the cancer is moving to stage 4. History may record Biden’s weakness on Maduro as his greatest foreign policy blunder– not Ukraine, not China, not Gaza and not the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Based on the turnout at the Target shopping center, it seems the migrants were momentarily joyful at Maduro’s ouster only to be disappointed when he put his thumb on the scale. That tells me most want to return to Venezuela when its safe and if democracy returns.
No one wants military intervention but when a third of the population of a nearby country chooses to flee, thus disrupting security in cities across our country, what choice do we have, honestly?
People are so worked up over our border policies that they fail to consider the actual root causes for the Venezuelan migration in particular. Sorry but its not because our border is open.
Want to quickly reverse the Venezuelan migration? Then give Maduro 24 hours to leave the country. If he fails to go, put a bounty his head and deploy the USMC to hunt him down– just as they did with Noriega in Panama.
As a moderate independent, I see both parties putting their political agendas and quest for domination ahead of what’s best for the people. As a result, the gangs and cartels are taking advantage as so many politicians foment hate among us but accomplish little.
We’re getting played for fools — because we are.
No, you’re just playing the fool.
So Mr. Ryan, some say that insulting the undecided voter is sort of like standing in a circular firing squad. Thoughts?
Jeff loves it when violent immigrant gangs settle in Aurora.
Why? Because I want the politicians to NOT interfere with LE as they quietly and properly investigate the actual crimes?
Can someone please tell me what was the purpose of the public announcement of the regional LE task force? Do we no longer care about the integrity and security of LE’s investigations? The public announcement only served the interests of the politicians trying to score partisan points with hyperbolic emotional pleas. As a moderate independent, I’m absolutely repelled by such tactics. You are actively pushing me to the left.
MAGAts everywhere at this bar…
Pure political antics. Make scapegoats out of our diverse community of hard-working people of Aurora. Sick, sick, sick!
Biden campaigned on ending Trump’s border policies and did when he came into office. All Trump did was enforce laws already on the books. Obama, Clinton, Pelosi all voted for a border wall and better enforcement of our immigration laws, then refused to fund it. Bill Clinton commissioned Barbara Jordan to investigate the effects of illegal immigration. She did, and she found that illegal immigration hurts minorities and low income people the most by driving down wages. Illegal immigrants commit crimes in the US such as murder, sexual assault, burglaries, and drunk driving homicides every day. The media and open border advocates lie when they tell you that illegals commit fewer crimes than citizens. Illegal criminal activity is under reported by law enforcement. Look it up. This Venezuelan gang has popped up in Dallas and Chicago. Look it up. 75% of arrests in NYC are illegals. Cesar Chavez did not like illegals, as he knew they took jobs from Mexican Americans and drove down wages. BTW, you liberal Coloradoans are a bunch of clowns. Denver has gone to $hit because of your sanctuary city left wing garbage. What makes you think this country or any country can have an open border and absorb all these poorly educated economic refugees without serious consequences? Yes, a lot of these people want to work and improve their lives, but a lot don’t. They’re freeloading bums with no respect for the rule of law and want to mooch off Americans. These illegals are being trafficked by the cartels. Deport every illegal alien and shut down the border to illegal immigration. BTW, those apartments are $hitholes, and the landlords should be thrown in jail. Colorado used to be a great state, but you Democrat morons have ruined it.
I had a nice lunch at Dan Da (the new New Saigon) on Thursday, a couple blocks from apartments in question. Will be going to the Aurora Fox tomorrow for the new season announcement. Not afraid.
No matter what level of government, until all these ‘officials are held accountable for their lies, sensationalisms, fear-mongering, and childish name calling (like “wild dogs’ and ” invasion”), this will never end?! The biggest threats, currently, are those who do not have the ability to distinguish truth from misinformation. PITY!
The real pity is that you think there’s nothing wrong with letting violent criminal gangs set up shop in the country.
Plenty of evidence about gang activity in 2 or 3 apartment complexes. A law firm hired by the lender for the properties conducted an investigation. The law firm found plenty of evidence of gang infiltration at at least 2 buildings. Unlike Democrats, the Aurora city council member has spent much time at the complexes so she has spoken directly to residents and even helped a resident escape the chaos. The video clearly shows criminal activity despite desperate denials by Democrats and their allies. Complaints about criminal gang activity have been sent to the APD, FBI, and ICE without any help until publicity began. Democrats have made the gang infiltration a political issue by refusing to address the problem for fear about voter backlash about open borders policies.
I swear, but this whole debacle of them destroying us by “Henny Penny”, “The Sky is Falling” crybaby toddlers dressed as leaders smells a whole lot like Republican Manure! And this stench from this is especialy toxic! It’s getting so much harder to laugh at their rediculous blatently racist anti-social Behavior, and say it’s just party games! The Tepublican party’s attack on Ameruca is DISCUSTING! And Americans should be mad as Hell at these MORONS! They no longer are an American Political party, they are terrorists who try there best to Divide this country through deciet,lock-step goon squad efforts, and should be evicted from their roosts in office because of it all!
There antics can no longer be laughed at. It should be shamed for what it has become. And if not disbanded, at least spay or neutered.
Unity with your side should be rejected out of hand. Your side was never pro-America, which is why you’re constantly trying to “disrupt, dismantle, and abolish” it, while your allies chant “Death to America” in its streets, and has done so for decades.
I’d say your side should be spayed and neutered, but a lot of you are already getting surgeries for that anyway, lol.
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman put out a statement on Facebook Friday, saying he agrees with interim Police Chief Heather Morris that a Venezuelan gang is not in control of the apartment complexes.
It’s always a matter of perspective where your-re coming from. Gangs aren’t in control as these leaders see it their way. On the other hand, numerous people calling asking 911 for help around these Dallas apartments as the gangs do whatever they want. No cops show up, basically these folks are on their own. APD further goes on to tell us things might not get better. Mayor, please tell Cindy Romero, who lived in these apartments and called APD numerous times her perception of things are incorrect.
Its pretty clear why these folks came to JJ’s to support Jonn Fabbricatore. Five Colorado counties are suing the state to overturn the Colo. Law that prohibits interaction between local law enforcement and ICE. Jason Crow is out of touch, and refuses to, or incapable to pay attention was the simple message. This is a local as it can get, and this open border policy has encouraged these gangs to get in and right next to our own front doors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoP9LbMvKXY
Make pets safe again!