U.S. Rep. Jason Crow said Monday after touring Buckley Space Force Base that officials there told him the base in Aurora will be used as a staging area for federal immigration enforcement agencies but not as a detention center for immigrants subject to deportation, despite widespread reports last week based on a statement by the military.

“I showed up today, started poking around like I like to do, and did discover that, indeed, the facility is being used for Homeland Security operations, for ICE operations,” said the Aurora Democrat at a press conference held outside the base.

“I have been told that it will not be used to house immigrants and detainees, that it will only be used as a staging location for law enforcement and a coordination center for ongoing operations,” Crow added.

Crow said he plans to continue seeking information from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense “to figure out the true nature of these operations, to see how they evolve, and continue to conduct oversight that’s necessary to make sure that the … activities that do occur are consistent with the values of Colorado.”

Last week, Crow, whose district includes Aurora, said he is “deeply concerned” about reports that the Trump administration had enlisted the military base in Colorado’s third largest city as part of the president’s mass deportation plans.

“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 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.”

After touring the base on Monday, Crow said he plans to keep tabs on immigration operations at the facility, since its current use could change.

“They said that there are no plans to conduct any detention operations at Buckley Space Force Base,” Crow said. “I of course know that things change and evolve. That’s why we’re going to do regular check-ins, regular oversight, and we’re going to pay close attention to how things change, if they do.”

Colorado's Jason Crow rips plans to use Aurora's Buckley Space Force Base to detain immigrants

Crow added that he understands that Buckley is centrally located with a large airfield and large infrastructure, so it could potentially be used to process immigrants as Trump’s deportation effort ramps up.

Crow, an Army Ranger veteran and Bronze Star recipient, sits on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Last year, Buckley Space Force Base generated more than $2.5 billion in local economic impact, according to officials.

Located on the east side of Aurora, the longstanding Air Force base was converted to a Space Force base five years ago. Buckley is operated by Space Base Delta 2 to command the Space Force’s missile warning system.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to conduct a mass deportation effort unlike seen before any in the U.S. and promised to start in Aurora, which was thrust into the national spotlight last year after a Venezuelan prison gang took over a few apartment complexes.

The Aurora Police Department’s strategy so far has been to board up these apartment complexes, leaving hundreds homeless.

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An issue usually confined to the U.S. southern border with Mexico, immigrants began spilling into interior states — like Colorado — in large numbers almost three years ago. That’s when a busload of immigrants were dropped off downtown and left to wander in frigid conditions.

Since then, Denver has welcomed nearly 43,000 immigrants at a cost to local taxpayers of about $80 million. It’s estimated about half of those stayed.

Last year, Crow joined a chorus of largely Democratic politicians who made public statements downplaying the Venezuelan gang’s activities at three apartment complexes in Aurora — after local officials admitted the city actually knew about the gang months ago, though the problem was limited to specific areas.

“Thank you to the city of Aurora for setting the record straight,” Crow said in September on X in response to a statement from the city. “There is no gang take over in any part of Aurora.”

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Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who crafted the statement that Crow cited, said the congressman “(missed) the entire point of the statement.”

“Recent exaggerated claims are simply not true,” Crow, who represents Aurora, continued in his tweet. “These claims have led to a narrative that makes it harder for law enforcement to do their job.”

The post was retweeted by Gov. Jared Polis.

Aurora officials had initially rejected claims by an apartment management company that the gang’s activities had precluded its staffers from caring for its tenants and buildings.

TdA is linked to various criminal activities that include drug and human trafficking — particularly immigrant women and girls and money laundering — kidnapping and extortion.

To combat the gang’s activities, Aurora officials have sought to close two apartment complexes TdA had been operating out of, a move that a gang expert at the University of Colorado at Boulder has called a “very rare” strategy.

The gang’s operation appears to be to get a foothold in a complex — through violence and intimidation — with the intent of collecting up to half of the rent from leaseholders, drying up collections for the landlord.

Last month, police detained more than a dozen TdA gang members suspected of being involved in an armed invasion in which a Venezuelan couple was bound, pistol-whipped and tortured.

And in an operation early Tuesday in the Bronx, federal agents also arrested Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 26, whom authorities said was one of the men captured in the viral video last summer and was involved in a June obduction, according to the Associated Press.