Colorado community braces for possible mass deportations under Trump

Geoff Bennett:

Today, president-elect Donald Trump said he's willing to enlist the U.S. military to deport migrants and is open to creating new detention camps to facilitate those deportations.

The comments from an interview with "TIME" magazine are the latest from Mr. Trump on his key campaign pledge, mounting the largest deportation operation in American history.

Stephanie Sy reports from Colorado, a state with significant protections for undocumented immigrants that also found itself at the center of the immigration debate during the campaign.

Stephanie Sy:

In Northwest Aurora, groups of immigrant day laborers wait for work. The reelection of a president promising mass deportations has not fazed some. This young man immigrated from Guatemala nine years ago.

Man (through interpreter):

I don't think it's going to be anything. He says he's only going to deport those who are carrying out crimes.

Stephanie Sy:

Others, like this man from Mauritania, say Trump's election has sparked his fears of deportation. The recently arrived asylum-seeker asked to remain anonymous.

Man (through interpreter):

If we go back there, it's prison or death. I am really scared. It keeps me up at night. If I'm returned, I don't know where I will go. I know that I will be in trouble.

Stephanie Sy:

That's a sentiment Mateos Alvarez has heard a lot over the last month.

Mateos Alvarez, Aurora Economic Opportunity Coalition:

There is concern around mass deportation naturally, and especially for those in this community across the board, because it's very diverse here, lower income, lots of folks coming and living here now. This is their second home from all over the world.

Stephanie Sy:

Alvarez runs the Aurora Economic Opportunity Coalition, one of several nonprofits that sprung into action in 2022 when tens of thousands of migrants began to arrive in Colorado.

Mateos Alvarez:

We are in a community that doesn't have a lot of resources, and it was very overwhelming for us in Aurora. But we have done a great job to get folks moving into the different pathways, work authorization when it comes to asylee applications and on and on and on.

Stephanie Sy:

But in August, a video of armed men in an apartment complex in Aurora went viral.

Woman:

Now there's been allegations that gangs have now completely taken this building over.

Danielle Jurinksy, Aurora, Colorado, City Councilwoman:

Everybody has seen the viral video footage. They have guns. They have a lot of guns. They are violent.

Stephanie Sy:

Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinksy helped make this video national news. She says that the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua came with the recent wave of migrants to Aurora.

Danielle Jurinksy:

It is so unfortunate that our immigration system became so broken.

Stephanie Sy:

The city of 400,000 residents became part of a frequent Trump attack line against Vice President Kamala Harris during the campaign.

Donald Trump, Former President of the United States (R) and Current U.S. President-Elect: You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They're taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country.

Stephanie Sy:

Aurora's Republican mayor and Jurinsky issued a statement saying Tren de Aragua has not taken over the city and the problem is limited to specific properties. In recent months, Aurora police have arrested at least nine alleged members of the gang.

Mateos Alvarez:

It turned out to be 10 gang members. People were scared, yes. But what was stated and what was fact, it's somewhere in the middle, to be honest. But, nationally, when all that was going on, it made things more stressful.

Stephanie Sy:

The apartment complex that made national news in Aurora is set to close. But accounts of it being overrun by a violent Venezuelan gang continue to reverberate, making this diverse city a focus of national immigration policy, including President Trump's pledge to conduct mass deportations.

Donald Trump:

These towns have been conquered.

Stephanie Sy:

At a rally here in October, Trump announced Operation Aurora, a plan to use an obscure 18th century law to deport undocumented gang members, but that some critics argue could lead to detentions and deportations without judicial review.

Danielle Jurinksy:

And let me tell you something else. Aurora, Colorado, is not a sanctuary city.

Stephanie Sy:

Jurinsky, who spoke at the Trump rally, says her concern has always been on those breaking the law, not all immigrants.

Danielle Jurinksy:

They have made very clear that they are coming for the criminals first. In my opinion, that's a lot. And I know it's been put out there that folks that have been here for 20, 30 years are going to be taken and families are going to be torn apart. I just don't believe that. I just don't.

I hope that I'm not proven to be wrong. If I see some things like that, I potentially could be a speed bump.

Stephanie Sy:

How would you be a speed bump?

Danielle Jurinksy:

I would certainly speak up and do anything that I could. I certainly would not be OK with families being separated, folks being taken from our community that have grown roots here.

Stephanie Sy:

Aurora's immigrant population is not united on their feelings about deportations. One longtime resident from Mexico told us anonymously that fellow Latin American immigrants that commit crimes deserve to be deported.

And Sandra Pitol, an undocumented migrant who came from Mexico more than 23 years ago, had this view:

Sandra Pitol, Migrant (through interpreter):

If I have to leave this country, I will leave, because it's not my country, and I have always been aware that it's not my country. Eight years ago, Donald Trump was also president and he was also saying that he was going to deport people, immigrants. And really, well, nothing happened.

Stephanie Sy:

But Gladis Ibarra takes Trump at his word.

Gladis Ibarra, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition:

We hear these threats and these promises, and I don't think we should take them lightly.

Stephanie Sy:

Ibarra is the co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition and is herself a recipient of DACA, the Obama era program for those who were brought to the U.S. as children without documentation.

While Trump has recently said he would protect DACA recipients, he tried to shut it down in his first term.

Gladis Ibarra:

A lot of us, myself, I have children. If something were to happen to me, what is the plan that I'm leaving behind? And if — in case I am unable to be with my children, who will be in charge for them?

Deportations leave a lasting impact on our community, and I'm thinking of the most common scenario, where we see a parent be separated, the trauma that that leaves for the child, and how that impacts their upbringing, but also the people around them.

Stephanie Sy:

The organization is holding know-your-rights trainings for immigrants. It is also bracing for pushback to laws that protect immigrants in Colorado, like a 2019 measure that prohibits local and state police from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement.

Gladis Ibarra:

We have worked tirelessly with our partners both on the ground and in the capitol to ensure that everyone in Colorado feels safe from federal government overreach.

But, every year, we have seen people that want to challenge our laws locally, right? We see those efforts, and we have held the line thus far. I think we have a fight ahead of us.

Stephanie Sy:

Back in Aurora, Mateos Alvarez says he's remained focused on getting migrants on the right track, while the uncertainty of president-elect Trump's mass deportation promise looms.

Mateos Alvarez:

Right now, we don't have much to go on, other than that kind of slogan. But, for us, we are trying to be proactive and put people to work, become independent, follow the rules. Doing that allows us to bring hope to the many who came here for whatever reason that they came here.

Stephanie Sy:

Hope that some fear will soon be out of reach.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy in Aurora, Colorado.