Colorado governor defends Aurora against Trump’s claims about migrants
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Sunday defended the city of Aurora against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's claims that the city has been overrun by Venezuelan immigrants.
"It's really a great diverse city and it's growing fast. It will probably be the No. 1 or 2 city in Colorado over the next decade or two," Polis, a Democrat, told "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan on CBS. "So it's a great city, it's safer than it's been. Like any city — Chicago, L.A., mid-sized cities, Denver — of course, there's been an issue with gangs for decades in Aurora and I feel that we finally turned the corner."
Trump has taken to using Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, as his favorite examples of everything he sees as being wrong about the Biden administration's immigration policies, often with scary anecdotes provided without verifiable details.
"Under border czar Harris, Venezuelan gangs have taken over entire apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado," the former president said at a rally in North Carolina yesterday. "The governor is petrified in Colorado. He's a liberal governor. He doesn't know what to do. The guy is so scared of these guys and maybe you can't blame him."
When asked how he responded to the personal attack, Polis said, "I went shopping in Aurora yesterday. What a lot of Americans need to know is Aurora [has] over 400,000 people, it's Colorado's third largest city, violent crime is down two years in a row, car thefts are down two years in a row. It's a wonderful city. I'm there all the time."
Aurora has seen an influx of about 40,000 migrants to the already diverse community in recent years, which has increased housing costs. A special task force made up of Aurora police department detectives was assigned to investigate the Venezuelan gang's alleged connections to the city in August.
However, Trump's claims that the Venezuelan gang is "taking over" — as he said at a rally in California on Sept. 13 — is greatly exaggerated , Polis and others have said.
"This is the difference between electing a president that skirts the law versus one who has made a career enforcing the law," Polis said to Brennan. "Kamala Harris is somebody who stared criminal enterprises in the face, put criminals behind bars as district attorney and she's going to take that same attitude to the White House to make America safer."
