In Aurora for a campaign stop on Friday, former President Donald Trump blasted the Biden administration’s handling of illegal immigration, which he said contributed to the Venezuelan gang problem in Colorado’s third-most populous city.

Trump took the stage — 25 days before the November election at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center — in Aurora to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” On the stage behind him were nearly a dozen placards with mugshots of several alleged Venezuelan gang members. Aurora police have identified at least 10 gang members accused of various crimes from robbery and assault to multiple shootings and domestic violence.

A string of speakers — Republican dignitaries in Colorado — primed the audience for Trump by focusing on America’s illegal immigration woes, which, the Republican nominee bemoaned, allowed a Venezuelan gang to gain a foothold in the U.S. and metro Denver.

Trump oscillated between the illegal immigration crisis that has spilled into America’s interior cities, notably Denver, Chicago and New York, and the gang situation in Aurora, and he sought to tie the problem to the Biden-Harris administration’s policies. He also promised to solve the problem.

“Kamala Harris, the worst border czar in the history of America,” Trump said of the vice president.

Trump added: “Kamala has imported an army of illegal aliens and gang members.”

Tren de Aragua or TDA is a violent Venezuelan prison gang that has expanded its footprint into the United States, establishing a presence in Colorado’s urban centers, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

During his speech, Trump introduced Cindy Romero, the Aurora resident who captured a video of several men — believed to be members of TDA — with weapons barging into apartment units. The properties’ owner said the buildings had been taken over by the TDA gang.

Romero warned that unchecked immigration and TDA poses a threat to Aurora and the United States.

“With Trump’s help, we can take the state back,” Romero said.

Romero had moved out of the complex shortly after the video went viral.

Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who has talked about the Venezuelan gang’s activities in her city with local and national media organizations and who spoke at Friday’s rally, said she went to the apartments and helped move Romero and her husband out. 

Jurinsky said when she started asking questions, she was told about “code enforcement violations,” she said, referring to the city’s stance that the apartment complexes had multiple violation of the building code. Aurora officials initially denied the extent of the gang’s control at the three apartment complexes. 

“If you come into this city and you threatened the residents of Aurora Colorado, I will come after you,” Jurinsky told a sold-out crowd before Trump spoke.

In August, Aurora officials boarded up and fenced off Aspen Grove, a 99-unit complex near the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Officials accused the owners of a laundry-list of issues, citing rodent infestations, sewage backups and trash pileups, among others.

The properties’ owner, CBZ Management — through its attorney and a PR firm — said the gang takeover at the apartment complexes precluded its staffers from caring for the buildings.

A national law firm that investigated the claims said that, through violence and intimidation, the gang took over Whispering Pines — one of the complexes owned by CBZ Management — and sought to collect up to half of the rent from leaseholders, drying up collections for the landlord.

Trump made several claims during his 82-minute speech:

• Only 20% of the residents in the three apartment complexes overtaken by the Venezuelan gang have stayed. He said he hopes they could hold out long enough for him to get elected. 

• Harris created an app to direct where to “drop illegal aliens.” He said he would shut down the app, likely referring to CBP One, which is how immigrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border can preschedule appointments for asylum processing. It’s also the only way that Venezuelans, Cubans and a few other nationalities who seek travel authorization to obtain parole could submit biometric information to the Border Patrol.

• Denver Public Schools was seeing 500 students enroll every two weeks because of illegal immigration.

At one point during the peak of the illegal immigration crisis, Denver Public Schools saw roughly 200 to 250 students enroll each week. A study from the Common Sense Institute released several months ago said that, across the Denver metro, 17 school districts had — combined — seen more nearly 16,000 immigrant students since December 2022, including 44% or 6,919 from the five countries largely believed to be driving the influx.

“They’re a savage gang, one of the worst in the world and they’re getting bigger all the time because of our stupidity,” Trump said.

If elected, Trump vowed to create a taskforce he will name “Operation Aurora” to address the issue illegal alien gang members. Under Operation Aurora, the federal government would expedite the removal of “savage gangs” living in the country illegally, he said.

“We are a country under tremendous distress,” Trump said. “We will send elite squads from ICE to deport every single gang member.”

For those who return, Trump said he would impose a mandatory 10-year prison sentence.

And he will also push for death sentences for immigrants who kill Americans, he said. 

Among the biggest-applause lines of the afternoon was Trump’s pledge to “make America safe again.” 

Over the past 22 months, roughly 43,000 immigrants — mostly from South and Central America, particularly Venezuela — have arrived in Denver. Many illegally crossed the southern border, fleeing dire economic circumstances and oppressive governments.

Initially, local officials believed immigrants were drawn to Denver because of its proximity to El Paso, Texas and the southern border with Mexico. Others blamed the city’s status as a “sanctuary city.”

Generally speaking, “sanctuary city” refers to policies that discourage local law enforcement from reporting an individual’s immigration status to federal authorities.

Texas officials, however, blamed Denver’s promise of free shelter and onward travel to newly arriving immigrants.

“There’s a pull factor created by this, and the policies in Denver for paying for onward destinations,” Irene Gutiérrez, executive director of El Paso County Community Services in west Texas, has said.

Trump vowed that, if elected, he would end the “sanctuary city” policies — such as the one in Colorado and Denver, which he said have led to gang activities.

Nine years ago, when Trump announced his 2016 campaign, he famously said that Mexico was “not sending their best.”

“They’re bringing drugs,” Trump said in 2015. “They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

He reminded attendees of what he said then.

“I took a lot of heat for saying it, but I was right,” Trump said Friday.

Trump added: “Our criminals look like babies compared to these people.”

To date, Denver taxpayers has spent more than $75 million on the humanitarian crisis, according to the Denver Human Services, which is managing the response.

While no one knows with certainly how many of 42,911 immigrants who came to Denver stayed, the number of plane, train and bus tickets suggest about half have.

If accurate, that equates to about 21,455 immigrants or the equivalent of adding a city the size of Golden to the area in less than 22 months.

“Colorado will vote for Trump as a protest and signal to the world that we are not going to take it anymore,” Trump said toward the end of his speech. “I will liberate Colorado. I will give you back your freedom and your life.”