LAS VEGAS – Former President Donald Trump announced Friday that if elected he will “liberate Aurora” by establishing a federal task force aimed at “crushing” foreign gangs.
Tren de Aragua, a ruthless Venezuelan prison gang, has reportedly overrun several apartment buildings in the Colorado city since expanding its reach in the US amid the historic surge in illegal immigration under the Harris-Biden administration.
“They’ve become real estate developers, like I used to be,” Trump said of the organized crime syndicate during a Las Vegas rally.
“They’re dismembering rivals from Chile and from Colombia … How the hell did we allow this to happen to our country?” the former president noted, referring to a recent Wall Street Journal report on the gang.
“In Colorado, the gang even got a green light to shoot the cops,” Trump said, referring to a July memo authored by the Homeland Security Investigations office in Chicago.
“That’s not acceptable,” the GOP nominee argued, before laying out his plan to combat Tren de Aragua.
“When I return to the White House I will launch a special task force of elite federal law enforcement and charge them with crushing and eliminating every foreign gang and organized crime network that is conquering our country,” Trump pledged.
“We will deploy ICE, DHS and other federal officials to go in and liberate Aurora,” he added. “Can you believe I have to say this? We are going to liberate parts of our country.”
Cops in Aurora have arrested 10 confirmed members of Tren de Aragua in recent months.
The gang members have been using blighted apartment complexes in the city of 390,000 as their home base, terrorizing residents there with gun crime, theft and drug dealing.
Earlier this week Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Council Member and Public Safety Chairwoman Danielle Jurinsky confirmed that Tren de Aragua “issues” have “significantly affected” some properties in the city.
However, the officials disputed that the gang has “taken over” the city, as Trump suggested in his Tuesday debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the debate, Trump acknowledged in his Las Vegas speech that he was “angry” during his showdown with Harris.
“Of course I’m angry,” he said. “We got 21 million people that came into our country – invading our communities, invading our cities and our towns, and destroying our country.”
“I’m angry about Venezuelan gangs taking over Aurora, Colo., and I’m angry about illegal Haitian migrants taking over Springfield, Ohio … and the American people are damn angry too,” Trump continued.
The Post spoke with a few of the 6,000 Trump supporters who attended the event at the World Market Center, just north of the Las Vegas Strip, and all were effusive in the praise of the former president.
Las Vegas resident Sterling Bawden said Trump’s address was “excellent,” and he predicted Nevada would go for the GOP presidential nominee on Election Day.
“Because he’s the man,” Bawden said, “Nevada needs a lot of stuff done, and he’s the guy to do it with all the policies he’s got and build back everything, you know, but making America great again.”
The Silver State hasn’t been won by a Republican presidential candidate since 2004.
Trump trails Harris by a narrow 0.6 percentage point margin in Nevada, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of state polls.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), who endorsed Trump last month and spoke at Friday’s rally, called the state a “must-win” for the former president.
“Pawn Stars” personality Rick Harrison, mixed martial artist Henry Cejudo, and Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown were among the others who addressed attendees.
Lisa Marrone, from the city’s Spring Valley neighborhood, said Trump’s address “touched on everything that’s an issue and we need to work on.”
She also applauded the ex-commander-in-chief’s plan for a task force to “liberate” Aurora from violent gangs.
Was she worried about gangs coming to her area? “One hundred percent,” she replied. “We need to take our country back.”
