Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday in Aurora hurled insults at Colorado’s Democratic governor and vowed to “liberate” the state after next month’s election from a wave of immigration-related problems.

Critics say the former president has “grossly exaggerated” the problems to score political points, while supporters said the crisis facing Aurora and other cities is real.

“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump told a crowd estimated at about 10,000, who nearly filled an exhibit hall at a luxury resort and convention center near Denver International Airport.

Trump announced that, if elected, he plans to launch a mass deportation program dubbed “Operation Aurora” in a nod to his recent focus on reported criminal activity by members of a Venezuelan gang in several apartment buildings in the city, Colorado’s third-largest.

Flanked by enlarged mug shots picturing alleged Venezuelan gang members and signs that said, “deport illegals now” and “end migrant crime,” Trump said he intends to deploy “elite squads” of federal immigration agents to round up and expel people. Trump added that he wants to see the death penalty for immigrants convicted of murdering American citizens.

“You can’t live like this, you can’t live with these people,” Trump said. “These are stone-cold killers.”

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a former Republican congressman, pushed back on Trump’s characterization of the city of 400,000, calling Trump’s claims that Aurora has been “invaded” or occupied by migrant gangs false and damaging to the city’s sense of safety.

Coffman also expressed disappointment that Trump declined his invitation to get a look at the city beyond his quick stop on its outskirts.

In a statement, Coffman said those who attended Trump’s rally probably included many who were making their first visit to the city and were “able to see firsthand the mischaracterizations of our great community.”

“I cannot overstate enough that nothing was said today that has not been said before and for which the city has not responded with the facts,” Coffman said. “Again, the reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity in our city — and our state — have been grossly exaggerated and have unfairly hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety.”

Added Coffman: “The city and state have not been ‘taken over’ or ‘invaded’ or ‘occupied’ by migrant gangs. The incidents that have occurred in Aurora, a city of 400,000 people, have been limited to a handful of specific apartment complexes, and our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns and will continue to do so.”

Stephen Miller, a top political aid to Trump, revved up the crowd before Trump took the stage.

Pointing to the enlarged mugshots, Miller said, “Are these the kids you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you were raised with? Are these the neighbors that you want in your city?”

As the crowd roared its disapproval, Miller added, “As swiftly as they came, Donald Trump will send them back.”

Said Miller: “You have a right to have a country that is of, by and for Americans, and only Americans.”

Trump began mentioning Aurora on the campaign trail just over a month ago amid attention to a viral video that showed heavily armed men suspected of being members of a transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua menacing residents of an apartment building in the city. Known as TdA, the gang had its origins in Venezuelan prisons.

“At Aurora in Colorado, where Venezuelans are taking over the whole town, they’re taking over buildings, the whole town,” Trump said in early September during a televised town hall. He later invoked the city during his only debate with Harris, saying immigrants were “taking over the towns, they are taking over buildings, they’re going in violently.”

Coffman and the city’s police department have maintained that the Venezuelan gang’s activity has been limited and contained.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jared Polis criticized what he termed Trump’s “lies and distortions about Aurora” and contrasted the Republican’s harmful rhetoric with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, at a press conference held with other top state Democrats.

At the rally, Trump repeatedly attacked Polis after first claiming that the governor acted deferential during a White House meeting but later turned on Trump.

“He’s a coward, he’s a fraud, he’s pathetic,” Trump said, referring to Polis, as the crowd roared its approval.

Trump also predicted that he will carry Colorado’s vote in the general election.

“Colorado is going to vote for me because I am going to make Colorado safe again,” Trump said.

Polls show Harris with a double-digit lead and the state’s strong tilt toward Democrats in recent decades. The state’s electorate hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential ticket since 2004, when voters supported then-President George W. Bush’s reelection bid.

In a podcast recorded the previous day but released Friday, Polis called it “tragic” that any Venezuelan immigrants were subject to “intimidation or violence by other Venezuelans” but insisted that Trump’s portrayal of Aurora “is just not the Aurora we know.”

“How much do you want to give him air?” Polis asked Tim Miller, the host of The Bulwark’s daily podcast. “We’re talking about this, which is what he wants. I’m trying to shift to how great Aurora is.”

Polis said that, according to crime statistics, Aurora is “a much better city than it was in the ’80s and ’90s, and frankly, it’s better than it was two years ago.”

“This is an exciting time for Aurora,” he said. “Of course, there’s going to be crime, like there is in any city in the country, but the crime (in Aurora) is down two years in a row. It’s just a fun, better place than it’s ever been before, and we want to make sure we get that narrative out there.”

Trump also blamed Polis for leading a move to keep off Colorado’s ballot last year, even though it was a liberal-leaning nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. and six Republican and unaffiliated voters who filed the lawsuit under the 25th Amendment, which bars certain federal officials who have engaged in insurrection from running for office.

After the Colorado Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling to remove Trump from the state ballot, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision.

Along with Polis, some of Colorado’s Democratic elected officials accused Trump and his supporters of overstating the problems in Aurora.

“Donald Trump has invited himself to Aurora to do what Donald Trump does best, which is to demonize immigrants, to lie, and to serve his own political purposes,” said U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. “And we can’t let him divide us anymore.”

Many of the state’s leading Republicans took a turn at the microphone as the crowd continued to fill into the hall, about two hours before Trump spoke.

“Donald Trump is here, he’s coming today to highlight the very real problem we have on the southern border,” said Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams, who noted that election officials had put ballots in the mail to state voters “as we speak.”

State Rep. Gabe Evans, the Republican nominee challenging Democratic U.S. Rep Yadira Caraveo in Colorado’s most competitive congressional district, blamed the Democrats’ policies for the state’s high ranking for various crime rates.

“We can make sure that Donald Trump has a Republican majority in the House of Representatives when he’s reelected as the 47th president of the United States,” said Evans, a former Arvada police officer and military veteran.

Jeff Crank, the Republican who defeated Williams in a primary to run for the seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, said Trump and fellow Republicans “need to take back Colorado.”

Recalling the question Ronald Reagan famously posed during his 1980 presidential campaign, Crank asked the crowd, “Is the state of Colorado better off than it was four years ago?”

As the crowd shouted “No!” Crank added, “We need to rebuild our military, we need to bring American strength back to the world stage. Donald J. Trump will end this nonsense.”

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who is seeking a third term in the heavily Republican 4th Congressional District, drew applause with a string of one-liners.

“Your options are a booming economy, prosperity and freedom under President Trump, or watching the country fall apart and be handed over to dictators,” Boebert said. “The answer is really simple. We need Donald Trump back in the White House like we need an Extreme Home Makeover Immigration Edition.”

Referring to the Florida Republican who led a revolt against the House speaker last year, Boebert added: “I say we evict Kamala Harris from the White House faster than my friend Matt Gaetz evicted Kevin McCarthy.”

Weston Imer, a 20-year-old member of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council, said he was attending his 26th event with Trump, tracing back to his first in 2016, singing the national anthem at a campaign rally.

“There’s a ton of young people here,” Imer said. “Gen Z is engaged, the crowd is energized — there have been people waiting out here since 5 a.m., and some camped out overnight, so it’s really an incredible day.”