By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) – Officers from several U.S. federal agencies searched for alleged members of Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua on Wednesday in Aurora, the Colorado city with a large migrant population where President Donald Trump laid out his immigration policies during his campaign.
The Denver field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on social media that it was partnering with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and U.S. Marshals Service to locate and detain more than 100 members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang with prison origins that has expanded throughout the Americas.
ICE had not said how many arrests it had made by midday.
Some residents say Tren de Aragua has infiltrated Aurora, a city in the Denver suburbs. Local officials have called assertions about Tren de Aragua’s reach and activities in Aurora false and incendiary.
Trump held a rally in Aurora just weeks before the November election in which he laid out his immigration policies and said he would launch a national “Operation Aurora” to target gang members.
Trump, a Republican, issued an array of executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration after taking office last month. Since then, federal officials have highlighted immigration operations across the country as the first step in what Trump has vowed will be mass deportations.
On Wednesday, ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello, speaking at the site of one of the Aurora operations, said in a video posted on social media that the raids were taking place to target alleged gang members and that “as long as there are bad guys in the streets we’re going to be out here arresting them.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a Democrat, has spoken out against Trump’s plans for deporting immigrants.
Johnston said in a written statement on Wednesday that his office was aware of the immigration operations, adding “Denver Police and city authorities were not involved in these actions, nor were we given prior notice.”
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, an advocacy group, wrote on social media that Wednesday’s operations were taking place at apartment complexes and without warrants being shown to residents.
“Families are being prevented from leaving their homes – even to take their children to school,” the group said. “This action, taking place in Aurora, a focal point of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, is a direct attempt to criminalize immigrant communities.”
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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