Donald Trump detoured from the battleground states on Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that's been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanizing language, that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns. Trump's rally in Aurora marked the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide. The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in US history and has made immigration core to his political persona since launching his first campaign in 2015, per the AP. In recent months, Trump has pinpointed certain smaller communities with large arrivals of migrants.
Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump announced in Colorado that as president he'd launch "Operation Aurora" to focus on deporting members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Trump also repeated his pledge to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law allowing the president to deport any noncitizen from a country that the US is at war with. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings in Aurora, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver and that the area is again safe. Ignoring those denials from local authorities, Trump painted a picture of apartment complexes overrun by "barbaric thugs" and streets unsafe to travel, blaming President Biden and VP Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival.
"They're ruining your state," Trump said of the Democrats in the White House. Trump often used dehumanizing language, referring to his political rivals as "scum" and to migrants as "animals" who have "invaded and conquered" Aurora. The town is "infected by Venezuela," he said. "We have to clean out our country." He also reprised the first controversy of his career in politics, when he launched his 2016 campaign by saying migrants are rapists and bring drugs and crime. "I took a lot of heat for saying it, but I was right," Trump said Friday. To thunderous applause, he called for the death penalty "for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer." Later Friday in Reno, Nevada, Trump insisted the US is "an occupied country," adding, "I make this vow to you: Nov. 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America. Liberation day." More here. (More Donald Trump stories.)
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