ICE Conducts Raids In Aurora As It Focuses Immigration Crackdown On Tren de Aragua Gang

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Wednesday it's conducting a series of raids in Aurora, Colorado, specifically targeting members of Venezuelan-born gang Tren de Aragua as part of President Donald Trump's operation to expand deportations.

"100+ members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were targeted for arrest and detention in Aurora, Colo., today by ICE and its partners" in an ongoing investigation, the agency said on its X account.

ICE had postponed an operation in the city last week claiming knowledge of the effort had spread throughout the community and agents could be affected. Now, as agents conduct the raids, Aurora becomes the latest city to experience such an operation after Chicago and New York faced them last week.

"Time and again, criminal aliens prey on their own communities with sanctuary policies, knowing they're free to commit crimes without repercussion. ICE & its partners in Aurora, Colo., today to remove this very real public safety threat," the agency added in another publication.

Aurora, a small city around 40 minutes outside of Denver, has caught national attention over the last months as the Trump-Vance campaign put it at the center of its immigration rhetoric as the November elections approached. Throughout the campaign trail, now-President Trump and Vice President Vance spread false rumors that Haitian migrants were eating cats and dogs in Aurora, as well as Springfield, Ohio. The Republican duo also claimed that the Colorado city had been taken over by Venezuelan gangs, which the local police later disproved.

"We're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country," Trump said during an interview on the campaign trail. "And we're going to start with Springfield and Aurora."

Authorities have been targeting the gang across the state and the country with a series of high-profile arrests. Last week, the Drug Enforcement Administration's Rocky Mountain Field Division executed a search warrant in Denver at a makeshift club and arrested "numerous individuals" associated and connected with Tren de Aragua.

Forty-nine people were inside the club at the time, and ICE determined at least 41 were in the U.S. undocumented, according to NBC News.

On February 2, Trump announced that Venezuela had agreed to accept deported Venezuelan nationals, including gang members, and would provide transportation for their return.

The U.S. also announced this week that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele offered to house foreign nationals in its prison system, including criminals from notorious gangs such as Tren de Aragua. "We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee," Bukele stated.

Tren de Aragua, originally formed in Venezuelan prisons, has expanded its operations across the Americas, engaging in crimes such as drug trafficking, human smuggling, and extortion.