ICE Postpones Immigration Operation in Aurora, Colorado, Claims Media Leaks Could Compromise Agents' Safety

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) postponed an immigration crackdown operation in Aurora, Colorado claiming knowledge of the effort had spread throughout the community and agents could be affected.

The agency temporarily called off the operation due to media leaks, NBC reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. They said the leaks could have put the agents in the operation at risk.

Earlier this week, NBC News reported on several immigration enforcement operations that could take place throughout major U.S. cities. The news outlet said operations began Sunday in Chicago, Tuesday in New York City, and they were planning to kick off in Aurora on Thursday.

On Tuesday, officials at U.S. Northern Command confirmed that at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, Buckley Space Force Base was planning to stage and process "criminal aliens" within the U.S. for an operation taking place in Colorado.

Immigration officials hope to conduct the raids in the future but without much attention in advance, according to CPR News.

Amid the start of the New York City raids, Mayor Eric Adams issued a statement on what appeared to be a video of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem detaining a migrant.

"I directed the NYPD to coordinate with DHS's Homeland Security Investigations and other federal law enforcement agencies— as allowed by law— to conduct a targeted operation to arrest an individual connected with multiple violent crimes, both here in New York and in Aurora, Colorado, including burglary, kidnapping, extortion, firearms possession, menacing with a firearm, crime of violence, and other charges," he said.

But Aurora was not the only Colorado city where ICE has made, or planned to make, a presence.

The Drug Enforcement Administration's Rocky Mountain Field Division executed a search warrant in Denver over the weekend at a makeshift club and arrested "numerous individuals" associated and connected with the Venezuelan gang 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.

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."