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The police chief in Aurora, Colorado split hairs over characterizing the city’s woes as an “immigration issue” as he denied the city had been “overtaken by Venezuelan gangs.”

Under Vice President Kamala Harris’ tenure as “border czar,” every town has become a border town threatened by the lawlessness of unvetted criminal foreign nationals pouring into the country. During a Friday press conference, Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain appeared to downplay the severity of the crisis as he asserted recent arrestees had yet to be found connected to the Venezuelan prison gang, Tren de Aragua.

“Many of these individuals we’re talking about come from a country which does not have strong relationships with the United States, comes from a country that does not have a database that they are going to share or have shared,” explained Chamberlain.

“So being able to identify these actual individuals as TdA gang members has been a struggle,” he’d gone on while a post from the APD on X stated, “At this time, none of the six men have been connected to an organized criminal organization.”

The statement from police detailed how arrest warrants had been served for three men involved in an Aug. 18 shooting who were also said to have been seen in the surveillance video that brought Aurora into the spotlight after the gang had reportedly taken over an apartment complex.

Facing charges of first-degree burglary and menacing with a firearm, 21-year-old Naudi Lopez-Fernandez had been taken into custody while law enforcement was actively seeking 25-year-old Andersen Zambrano-Pacheco and 20-year-old Niefred Serpa-Acosta.

“The Aurora Police Department targets criminals based upon their actions and not on their immigration status. Immigration status is enforced by federal laws, by federal issues,” the chief made a point of stating.

During the conference, Fox News’ Alicia Acuna asked about the gangs having “taken over” the city and was told, “I can tell you right now, gangs are not in control of the city of Aurora. If you walk away with anything, that’s what I will say. Are there gangs in the city of Aurora? Yes. There are. Are there gangs in most major cities throughout the United States? 100% there are. What we are doing now is effectively addressing that gang activity and stopping it.”

Chamberlain argued, “Like most major cities, Aurora deals with crime issues and it deals with gang activity. When you look at a major city, those two things are in place. But we are not by any means overwhelmed by that issue, we are not by any means overtaken by Venezuelan gangs, TdA or any other gang.”

The chief also insisted, “This is not an immigration issue. It’s a crime issue.”

“That is for the federal [government]. The immigration aspect is for the federal, it’s for what they focus on. It’s what they’ve done,” he said. “It’s what comes out of federal government. It comes out of the White House.”

In her own statement to Fox News Digital, Aurora City Council Member Danielle Jurinsky concurred, “Immigration is the job of the federal government, and that’s why we need help.”

“Our ICE detention facility will fill up, and then what? Venezuela doesn’t just get to decide after clearing out their prisons that they’re not going to take anyone back. The federal government needs to provide a plan,” she added.

Meanwhile, the trouble in places like Aurora and Springfield, Ohio was enough to warrant a visit from former President Donald Trump as he announced during a rally in New York that he was prepared to see firsthand the problems wrought by Harris and President Joe Biden’s open border policies.

“I’m going to Springfield and I’m going to Aurora,” he told supporters. “You may never see me again, but that’s okay. Got to do what I got to do. Whatever happened to Trump? Well, he never got out of Springfield.”

The entirety of the APD press conference can be viewed below via their YouTube channel:

Kevin Haggerty
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