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Sanctuary city's policies push violent migrant gang into suburbs: 'It's a nationwide problem'
Although Denver's suburbs don't share its sanctuary city policies, the influx of migrants into the Mile High City has spilled outward. Now, its neighbors are facing an unprecedented wave of activity from a notorious Venezuelan prison gang.
Officials from Aurora, about nine miles east of Denver, told Fox News Digital the Tren de Aragua gang has gained a strong foothold in their city, commandeering apartment complexes and drumming up violent crime and sex trafficking.
"We currently have entire complexes under gang control — complexes where staff have been beaten up, they've been threatened, their families have been threatened [and] complexes where there are no staff left on the property," Aurora City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky said. "These complexes are being run by this Tren de Aragua gang.
"They start brokering apartments themselves when someone leaves out of fear or whatever. They go in and take pictures of the apartment themselves. Then, I've been told, within hours, a Venezuelan family moves in.
"Parts of the city are absolutely under this gang control. The local media is downplaying this," she said. "I believe politics is being played with people's lives. ... Nothing is being done to help the American citizens that are being trapped under this gang's control."
Jurinsky told Fox News Digital calls for emergency services have been on the rise, especially in light of a strapped police department.
"The number of emails coming in to me for help from residents and business owners, the volume is much higher. The allegations being made [about gang activity] are types of crime that I've not heard of on a regular basis in our city," she said.
Suspected members of Tren de Aragua are accused of a series of high-profile crimes across the United States, including the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the shooting of two NYPD officers during an arrest in June.
Its leaders recently gave the "green light" for its members nationwide to shoot members of law enforcement who attempt to interfere with their criminal activity – even in Denver.
Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirino, a Tren de Aragua leader who goes by "Galleta," the Spanish word for "Cookie," was arrested after brutally beating a man at an Aurora apartment complex that the gang had taken over, according to the New York Post. He was arrested again in July in a shooting at the same complex that left two wounded, the outlet reported.
Pacheco-Chirino has reportedly been detained and released at least twice since crossing the southern border in 2022, Homeland Security sources told the Post.
Denver, a city with about 710,000 residents, leads the nation in migrant arrivals per capita, with more than 40,000 arriving from the southern border since 2022, according to The Colorado Sun.
The city has spent an estimated $68 million to provide them with aid, even cutting back on emergency services. Meanwhile, Jurinsky and other members of Aurora's city council passed a resolution 7-3, pledging not to provide any support or resources to migrants coming into their city. ....
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All of this migrant gang crime and violence should not be happening in the United States. Venezuela and other countries are emptying their prisons and telling the prisoner to go or be killed. Our border Czar Kamala Harris has done nothing to seal the border and prevent illegal immigration.
