The mayor of Aurora, Colorado, who was thrown into the spotlight over a video showing violence carried out by Venezuelan gang members, has told Newsweek that his town is not overrun and that the situation has been used for political point scoring.
Two apartment buildings in Aurora, housing immigrants and other residents became the center of attention last week when the clip, showing armed men searching apartments, went viral.
Mayor Michael Coffman, who initially described the situation to Fox News as “an organized criminal effort,” said Friday that the story had snowballed.
“I certainly have concerns about the border, I have concerns about immigration policy, but from what I can see now, it seems to have an exaggerated importance,” Coffman told Newsweek.
“I’m not dismissing the concerns at all, but whatever happened initially, happened. What I can tell you now is that the gangs are not in control of either complex,” the Aurora mayor said.
A protester holds up a sign during a rally at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, on September 3. A video of armed men searching apartments in Aurora went viral last week.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Coffman, who served as a representative in the U.S. Congress for ten years, initially believed that the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua was in control and taking rent from residents.
Instead, the property managers had vanished and tenants simply were not paying anybody, Coffman explained.
The two complexes on Dallas Street and Helena Street are both facing maintenance issues and a lack of management, but the mayor said this has been the case for some time.
Property managers have been offered two full-time police officers for the next two weeks, should they return and regain control of the properties.
A complex situation centered on an apartment complex
A boy guides his bike past apartments in Aurora, Colorado, on September 3. It was initally thought that Venezuelan gang members had taken over two complexes in Aurora.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Aurora is a small town close to Denver, a sanctuary city that has welcomed migrants who have crossed the southwest border into the United States. Coffman said several new arrivals had been “crammed” into apartment buildings in his town, which then caused problems.
The mayor said the town had a long-standing Venezuelan population, many who have been there for years, but that unrest in the South American country had pushed more migrants toward the U.S.—both those with criminal histories and their victims.
“There is inadequate vetting of people at the border,” Coffman said.
“So, it’s my understanding that when you do have a concentration of Venezuelan migrants sometimes, sadly, that criminal element follows and exploits them within their own immigrant communities.”
Coffman said that this, and corruption within Venezuela, had made it difficult for his police department to secure cooperation with authorities there to secure criminal histories of suspected members of the gang.
The Aurora Police Department has issued multiple updates in the past week, saying that it arrested six suspected Tren de Aragua members and increased its presence around the apartment complexes.
GOP outsiders tied issue to election
A rally in Aurora, Colorado, on September 3, to address problems in apartment buildings occupied by people displaced from their home countries. Colorado Rep. Greg Lopez recently called migrants “wild dogs.”
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
On Thursday, Republicans, including Colorado Representatives Lauren Boebert and Greg Lopez and Texas Representative Chip Roy, held a press conference nearby and blamed the Biden administration for the situation in Aurora.
Lopez called the migrants “wild dogs” and said it was time to shut the borders down.
“Look at what they do. They go around, they create havoc, and if we allow them to take over a certain area, they’re going to breed, and they’re going to spread,” he said.
Boebert, who said she was raised in Aurora, said there was clear evidence that gang violence was rampant in the town and was not “a feature of your imagination.”
Coffman took issue with the group holding the event because they were not all representatives of Aurora.
“They came in from the outside, and their goal as Republicans—I’m a Republican, and I get it—their goal is to tie it into the presidential election,” Coffman said.
Mayor of Aurora says both parties to blame
Demonstrators gather at an Aurora, Colorado, apartment complex on September 3. Aurora Mayor Coffman says current immigration policy needs to change due to “negligence” at the federal level.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Coffman did voice frustration with the current immigration system, saying those housed in complexes like those in his town were unable to work for months after arriving, leaving them open to exploitation by gangs.
He said that he felt that current immigration policy needed to change due to “such negligence” at the federal level.
“Both sides have their fingerprints on this problem,” Coffman added, saying that former President Barack Obama did not do enough to get a bipartisan solution and neither did former President Donald Trump.
The mayor said that the only real immigration policy changes had come through executive action, but this was not sustainable.
“I just hope that Congress comes together and fixes this broken system,” he told Newsweek. “It’s way too easy to come into this country illegally, and it’s so hard to come in legally.
“I just think that the situation we are facing right now is the product of a broken immigration system.”
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