September 13, 2024 03:33 PM UTC

Trump: The Mass Deportations Will Begin In Aurora

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• by: Colorado Pols

As ABC News reports, once ex-President Donald Trump picked up the wildly exaggerated tales of Venezuelan gangs “taking over” the city of Aurora, Colorado in his stump speeches and this week’s punishing debate loss to Vice President Kamala Harris, it’s become an integral component of his message despite increasingly urgent attempts by local Republican elected officials to tamp down the economically calamitous hyperbole:

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he would conduct a mass deportation of immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, and dismissed a question from ABC News on the bomb threats the town is experiencing in the wake of unsubstantiated claims about Haitian migrants.

“We’re going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Trump said as he took reporter questions in Los Angeles, California. “And we’re going to start with Springfield and Aurora, [Colorado].”

The remark comes after Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, amplified unsubstantiated claims of Haitian migrants in Springfield eating pets. Trump did not repeat the baseless rumor when speaking in California, but called the Haitian migrants “illegal” despite the city explaining the Haitian population is in the U.S. legally under the Immigration Parole Program.

In Aurora, Colorado, where the struggle of fact vs. fiction over the city’s supposed “takeover” by Venezuelan gangs rages on as Susan Greene reports for the Sentinel, the city’s Republican Mayor Mike Coffman released a joint statement on Wednesday with City Councilor Danielle Jurinsky, one of the principal agents in the spread of the falsehood that “Aurora Has Fallen” to Venezuelan gangs, attempting put a belated lid on the inflated rumors doing real harm to the city’s economy–not to mention immigrants with no criminal intent:

Aurora officials pushed back against Republican Donald Trump’s assertions during Tuesday’s presidential debate that the city is overrun by immigrant gangs — adding, however, that gang activity has been concerning in some cases.

Gangs have not “taken over the city,” according to a statement released Wednesday. “The overstated claims fueled by social media and through select news organizations are simply not true.” [Pols emphasis]

The rebuttal by city police and administrative officials came with new details about the arrests of eight of the 10 people they say investigators have linked so far to the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, otherwise known as TdA…

The recent arrests of several suspected Venezuelan gang members was seized upon by the conservative rumor mill pushing the story of the “takeover” of Aurora as proof of their contentions, but in reality those arrests show both that authorities are fully engaged in countering the gang’s activity and that the extent of the problem, especially compared to homegrown gangs and criminals, is limited. Studies have repeatedly shown that immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate overall than native-born Americans, and the overwhelming majority of migrants who arrived in Denver over the past year after being bussed here by the Republican governor of Texas are here to contribute to the economy and escape internationally recognized oppression in their home countries. That Councilor Jurinsky has signed on to a statement denouncing the “overstated claims” she herself helped spread is a significant indicator that the hyperbole has reached a breaking point with local stakeholders.

Those are the facts, but in both Springfield, Ohio and Aurora, Colorado, the facts aren’t even a worn-down speedbump for Donald Trump. The more local stakeholders, even fellow Republicans, plead with Trump to stop these false attacks before someone gets hurt (see: bomb threats in Springfield today), the more tightly Trump will cling to the lies simply because conceding the truth would appear weak. And as long as Trump refuses to acknowledge reality, he will have sycophants around him who will Sharpie reality to match Trump’s fiction. That includes here in Colorado where Republican candidates like CO-06 longshot John Fabbricatore, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and even CO-08’s Gabe Evans have piled on the low-information fearmongering for their own benefit.

It will continue for as long as Trump believes there is any political benefit. Unfortunately, that decision will only circumstantially hinge on who else gets hurt.