Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow on Wednesday denounced reports that a military base in Aurora would be used as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.

At the same time, it appeared federal immigration officials had backed off or postponed plans to launch a large-scale deportation operation in the Colorado city this week and were no longer planning to use Buckley Space Force Base to house detained immigrants.

Crow, whose district includes Aurora, said that he is “deeply concerned” about reports that Buckley would be enlisted as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Crow added that involving the military in “politicized and contentious domestic immigration enforcement dishonors the service of our troops” and distracts them from their duties.

“Let me be clear: if someone, regardless of immigration status, is committing violent crimes, they have no place in our communities,” Crow said in a written statement.

“However, the President’s mass deportations are threatening to go after our neighbors, family members, business owners, and friends in order to create a narrative that most immigrants are violent criminals. This is simply not true.”

Crow said the community and military should expect his “vigorous oversight” and that he is prepared to oppose the move in Congress.

An Army special forces veteran, Crow serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

A spokesperson for the military’s Northern Command said Tuesday in a statement that it began providing facilities at Buckley a day earlier to enable Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “stage and process criminal aliens in the U.S. for an operation taking place in Colorado.”

Northern Command said military personnel weren’t involved in the operation, which would be staffed by ICE agents and other federal law enforcement agencies.

National media outlets reported this week that the Trump administration planned to conduct massive, “all hands on deck” immigration raids in Aurora starting as early as Thursday, part of a national campaign that would target three major U.S. cities per week.

During the presidential campaign last fall — including at a rally in Aurora — Trump pledged to launch a program he dubbed “Operation Aurora” to deport immigrant gang members and criminals.

On Wednesday, however, citing unnamed sources, NBC News reported that the Aurora operation had been temporarily called off after details leaked to the media.

Two sources familiar with the effort told Colorado Politics that plans to detain immigrants at Buckley had also been shelved, though neither Northern Command nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to inquiries late Wednesday about the base’s involvement in potential operations.

The Colorado Rapid Response Network, an immigrant rights organization, said Wednesday in a release that it had confirmed visible immigration enforcement activity across the state, including in Colorado Springs, Pueblo Brighton, and in Larimer and LaPlata counties. Among the activity, the group said, at least a few long-term residents were detained by ICE agents.

Condemning the actions and rhetoric surrounding the operations, the group called the announcement Buckley would be used to detain immigrants “an affront to our Constitution and an insult to the commitment service members have made to protect it.”

Supporters of the stepped-up enforcement in Colorado have argued that immigration laws need to be enforced and blamed Biden-era policies for the influx of immigrants to metro Denver, where some 43,000 have arrived in the past two years.