Trump announces 'Operation Aurora' to target illegal immigrant gang members in Colorado

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Chicago residents express fears over Tren de Aragua

 Fox News correspondent Garrett Tenney has the latest on fears over migrant crime on 'America's Newsroom.'

Former President Trump detailed his "Operation Aurora" during his rally in Colorado Friday afternoon — a program at the federal level that would remove illegal immigrant members of the dangerous transnational Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua.

Trump held a rally on Friday in Aurora, Colorado, where he formally proposed the removal program. The program is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle "every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil." 

"My message today is very simple," Trump said Friday. "No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this community can ever be allowed to become the President of the United States." 

Trump told the crowd in Aurora that "Colorado is going to vote for me because I am going to make Colorado safe again. We're going to make you safe. We're going to do it fast." 

"I'm announcing today that upon taking office, we will have an operation Aurora at the federal level to expedite the removals of these savage gangs and I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Think of that 1798. This was put there 1790. Yeah, that's a long time ago. Right?" Trump said Friday. "To target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil." 

He added: "Who would have ever thought that a president or a future president would ever have to stand here and say such things?" 

Trump said "so many things" have changed since he left office, blasting President Biden and Vice President Harris for having "absolutely destroyed our country." 

"We're a country in tremendous distress. We're a failing country. We're left at all over the world," he said.

Trump said, if elected, the federal government would "send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country." 

"And if they come back into our country, they will be told it is an automatic ten-year sentence in jail with no possibility of parole," Trump said. 

The former president also said he would call for "the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer." 

"With your vote, we will achieve complete and total victory over these sadistic monsters," Trump said. 

Suspected members of the Venezuela-based transnational gang Tren de Aragua were seen on surveillance footage possibly carrying weapons shared by the El Paso County Attorney's Office at the Gateway Hotel. (KFOX14/El Paso County Attorney's Office)

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The announcement comes after members of Tren de Aragua last month were caught on camera, armed with rifles and handguns, as they forced their way into an apartment in Aurora and threatened the tenant at gunpoint. Shortly after, they opened fire on a 25-year-old man outside the building, fatally shooting him. Of the three identified, all three are illegal aliens who were in Border Patrol custody but later released into the U.S.

The suspected Tren de Aragua gang members engaged in illegal activity including illegal dumping and drug use, according to the El Paso County Attorney's Office. (KFOX14/El Paso County Attorney's Office)

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The Trump campaign also points to the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was kidnapped, tied up, and assaulted for two hours under a bridge before she was allegedly killed by two of the gang members. 

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A campaign official said police just this week arrested over a dozen members of Tren de Aragua who had taken over yet another apartment complex in San Antonio, Texas and terrorized its residents.

Pointing to newly published data from ICE, the campaign official said there are now 13,099 illegal alien convicted murderers at large in the United States "under Border Czar Kamala Harris." 

The gang is believed to have originated in Venezuelan prisons and moved north over the last decade. But its reputation within the U.S. has grown this year, in part due to a number of high-profile crimes linked to the gang, with many believed to have arrived by coming across the southern border as part of the sharp increase in migration in recent years.

A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bulletin in March alerted agents to tattoos and other identifiers of the gang. Federal authorities had previously warned that the gang was trying to establish itself in the U.S, and could potentially team up with the violent MS-13 gang.

In February, New York officials linked the gang to more than 62 robberies in the city, and two suspected members of the gang were arrested in connection with a shocking assault of two NYPD officers.

The brother of the suspect in the killing of Georgia student Laken Riley has ties to the gang, and in Texas 10 migrants affiliated with the gang were arrested earlier in May.

The gang has established a significant presence in parts of Colorado. Fox News Digital reported in July that TdA members have been given a "green light" to fire on or attack law enforcement in Denver.

More recently, reports have emerged of the gang taking over at least two apartment buildings in Aurora, with surveillance video showing heavily armed men kicking down an apartment door. The Aurora mayor said on Fox News that there are "several buildings actually under the same ownership, out of state ownership, that have fallen to these Venezuelan gangs."

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The Biden administration announced significant action against the gang in July when the Treasury designated Tren de Aragua a "significant transnational criminal organization." That move blocks all property and assets owned by the gang in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the State Department offered up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest of three of the gang’s leaders. The administration also stressed that it is working to disrupt the gang and has increased vetting.