Community Editorial Board: Considering Trump’s deportation plans

Members of our Community Editorial Board, a group of community residents engaged and passionate about local issues, respond to the following question: Former President Trump says he would initiate a mass deportation of immigrants in Aurora. Your opinion?

That of former President Trump The announcement of the start of mass deportations in Aurora is a deeply disturbing proposal. It is not only impractical, but rooted in fear and misinformation. Targeting immigrant communities based on exaggerated claims of crime only contributes to division in our communities and fuels xenophobia. Aurora, with its rich diversity, should not be reduced to a political talking point. Instead of focusing on mass deportation, we must prioritize addressing the real challenges facing our communities – such as affordable housing and a balanced approach to public safety.

This does not mean we should ignore crime where it exists. Aurora has been dealing with criminal issues for years, and while immigrants sometimes find themselves in desperate situations due to a lack of support, scapegoating them is not the solution. Do we need order and security at the border? Absolute. The public discourse has already shifted, with Kamala Harris vowing to sign the bipartisan border bill into law if she becomes president. But as an immigrant, I simply cannot trust that Trump and the Republicans will effectively address this issue. Their rhetoric increasingly blurs the line between illegal and legal immigration, showing that their position is more about xenophobia and racism than real solutions to crime and border security.

The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), which has been at the center of recent headlines, is a real and dangerous group, and law enforcement must be vigilant in monitoring their activities. In countries like my native Peru, they have caused significant damage through extortion and violence, as evidenced by the recent strikes by transport workers. However, focusing on isolated incidents in Aurora and using them to justify mass deportation policies overlooks the complexity of the city’s crime problem. Mayor Mike Coffman and Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky both pushed back on Trump’s narrative and stated that the city is not overrun by gangs. Although police have confirmed the presence of TdA members and arrested nine individuals linked to the group, they remain a small part of the city’s crime landscape. Local gangs are still a bigger problem. Moreover, the problems plaguing Aurora’s apartment complexes largely stem from poor property management and affordable housing shortages, rather than a widespread gang threat.

The broader issue is the political use of immigrants to stoke fear and division. How could mass deportation even work without violating people’s constitutional rights? Legal or not, everyone here is protected by the Constitution, and mass deportations would undoubtedly lead to rights being trampled. Aurora has the best food scene in the Denver/Boulder Metro area and a vibrant community that I know firsthand from frequent visits to my friend’s Ethiopian restaurant. The city is working to tackle real crime problems and combat harmful misinformation. We must focus on solving these problems, not on tearing families apart with politically motivated deportations.

Hernán Villanueva, [email protected]

Anyone who is even remotely knowledgeable (i.e., gathers information from reliable sources that do indeed exist; real journalism does exist) or lives in a community with a significant immigrant population, sees this for what it is. I won’t go into the statistics that give the lie to Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance’s vile anti-immigrant rhetoric, and Aurora’s leaders have spoken in depth about what is actually going on in their city regarding crime, gangs (including Tren de Aragua), and the problems at the apartment complexes in question. Because that’s what it’s really about: rhetoric. Not policy, not facts on the ground, not a legitimate effort to identify and address real challenges in American life, but rhetoric: in this case, words of hate designed to inflame emotions and incite bigots and even violent actions.

Scapegoating immigrants is reprehensible. Unfortunately, using a group as a punching bag, where he “differentizes” some of his compatriots to incite his supporters, seems to be a successful political tactic for Donald Trump and his cohort, who also use this kind of language against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people, and elected Democrats, especially currently Trump’s opponent for the presidency, Kamala Harris.

A mass deportation would likely be illegal, and we can hope that it will not happen regardless of who is elected president. But in the meantime, the damage is being done to cities, neighborhoods and to individuals like the Haitians living in fear in Springfield, Ohio. To me, it’s clear who the real patriots are (as opposed to the convicted felon running for president of the US): people who work to improve their communities and broaden their sense of who their neighbor is. We all need to speak out about the lies Donald Trump and his campaign are telling. Those of us who are people of faith must also speak out against the bizarre “Christian nationalist” justifications that J.D. Vance has put forward (see his comments in Pennsylvania on September 28). We might also consider supporting hardworking adults and immigrant children in our Front Range communities by volunteering in our public schools, with an adult literacy program, or through other social services that help people adapt to a new live in the US – where the vast majority of immigrants make significant contributions and actually commit less crime than native-born Americans.

Diane Schwemm, [email protected]