DENVER — Congresswoman Lauren Boebert hosted a community roundtable Friday to discuss recent reports of gang and criminal activity at Aurora apartment complexes, a story which Scripps News Denver has kept you informed about since city officials shut down one of these complexes due to a long list of code violations, which the property management company blamed on the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.
Since then, Scripps News Denver has reported on Aurora’s effort to investigate the gang’s presence in the area, the city partnering with the feds after it was revealed that “components” of the gang were operating in the metro area, and more recently, Denver7 reported on the arrest of three additional suspects with confirmed or suspected ties to the Venezuelan gang.
Nationally, Aurora has become a talking point for politicians looking to discuss U.S. immigration policy.
Boebert, the firebrand Republican who represents Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, hosted the roundtable at Aurora City Hall with Texas Congressman Chip Roy, also a Republican.
The roundtable lasted about 90 minutes and also featured state and local leaders as well as concerned citizens.
As the U.S. representative for the 3rd Congressional District, Boebert doesn’t represent any part of Aurora, nor would she represent the neighborhoods where the apartment complexes are located if she’s elected to the 4th Congressional District seat in November.
But Boebert has taken an interest in the recent developments. Friday’s roundtable was the latest example.
“The purpose of this meeting was to get information out to Coloradans because, unfortunately, the media has done the complete opposite,” Boebert said. “They want to cover this up and label it a conspiracy.”
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Cindy Romero said during the roundtable she lived in constant fear every night as a tenant at the Edge at Lowry apartments in Aurora.
“If you guys don't know what it feels like to be a minority in your own home, I'm telling you: It's terrifying,” said Romero.
Romero said she was the person who took video showing armed men at the apartment complex. The video has since gone viral.
“I seen them moving the guns that morning, I called and reported it,” said Romero. “I have cameras picking them up, moving the guns from one building to another.”
The roundtable was held on the same day Boebert, Roy, and U.S. Reps. Greg Lopez and Doug Lamborn, also Republicans, sent a letter to Gov. Jared Polis, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, the FBI director, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations.
The letter asked them to provide answers about activity involving Tren de Aragua (TdA) in Colorado and the role nonprofits may have played in bringing immigrants to the state.
They cited several claims made by Denver law firm Perkins Coie, whose lawyers said they investigated “widespread criminal conduct” at Whispering Pines Apartments.
The law firm also claimed it found evidence of gang members committing several crimes, from “flagrant trespass violations, assaults and battery, human trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, unlawful firearms possession, extortion, and other criminal activities, often targeting vulnerable Venezuelan and other immigrant populations.”
Lawyers from the firm said it represents the lender for the apartment complex.
The law firm’s findings were outlined in a letter sent to Aurora’s interim police chief, the mayor and city manager on Aug. 9.
“The city received the letter and immediately included it in its ongoing investigative work," a spokesperson with the Aurora Police Department said, adding the city would continue to "aggressively investigate and pursue any criminal activity reported on or related to the properties owned by CBZ management."
APD did not say, however, if the claims made by the law firm were true.
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“This is a nonpartisan law firm that has come out with this. This is information that is vetted. It is nonpartisan,” Boebert said when asked why she cited the law firm’s letter to federal officials and whether she had any evidence beyond the letter.
She also accused the media of trying to gloss over the law firm's report.
“Why the media would want to try to disprove something and just gloss over it like it's some sort of conspiracy, instead of actually going in and helping Coloradans and doing whatever they can at any means necessary to expose the criminal activity and the violence that is taking place and the harm that is being caused, is why we are here today,” Boebert said. “We have a media that wants to cover up anything that does not go with the narrative of wide open borders, anything that aligns with sanctuary policies put forward by the Democrats in office here in Colorado.”
On Friday, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman said he visited with tenants at the Dallas and Helena Street apartment complexes.
He said while he believes "Venezuelan gang related problems" caused the property management to flee, he does not believe gangs are in control of either complex.
"At this time, I agree with Interim Chief Heather Morris' current assessment that a Venezuelan gang is not in control of either of these two apartment complexes," Coffman said.
Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky and Councilwoman Stephanie Hancock also participated in the roundtable, along with State Sen. Mark Baisley, R-Woodland Park; State Rep. Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland; and State Rep. Anthony Hartsook, R-Parker.
