Donald Trump, former US President and Republican presidential nominee, put illegal immigrants at the center of his election campaign, and accused his rival, Republican nominee Kamala Harris, of allowing hordes of illegal aliens to take over America.
In the final weeks of his campaign, Trump spoke increasingly about illegal immigration, an issue that appeals to many voters, especially Republicans. Previous claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing residents’ pets or taking wildlife from parks to eat have gone viral.
Last month, Trump accused Harris of allowing more than 21 million people, most of whom were “terrorists,” to enter the US from “unknown” places, causing “enormous damage” to the country. “He is trying to deceive the public as if he is doing a good job at the Border when, in reality, he has destroyed the fabric of our country allowing 21 Million people to enter from unknown places,” he said in a post on X. “When he speaks , please know that this woman has allowed over 21 million people into our Country, with no checks at all, and from unknown places. They are now creating criminal chaos across the Country. Every State is a Border State! I hope everyone remembers that he has caused enormous damage to cities, towns and our own country, and only I can fix it!” he added.
Trump is now threatening a group of immigrants with an 18th century law.
Trump’s ‘Operation Aurora’
Trump detailed his new ‘Operation Aurora’ plans during a rally in Aurora, Colorado, last week. He said he would invoke the Enemy Alien Act of 1798 to deport illegal immigrants if he was elected to the White House. This rarely used law was last applied to penned immigrants of Japanese descent – mostly US citizens – in internment camps during World War II.
“Kamala has imported an army of illegal foreign gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the Third World,” Trump said in Aurora, a city he claimed was overrun by Venezuelan gang members, a claim denied by local officials, including Republicans. “I will save Aurora and every city that has been attacked and conquered,” he added, promising that his government would “drive them out of our country.” Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican, responded to Trump’s claims, saying that concerns about gang activity in Venezuela had been exaggerated and that the city had not been “taken over” by migrant gangs. Trump’s Operation Aurora was carried out to quickly get rid of gang members, particularly those from Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that wanted to use the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 to specifically target criminal networks formed by illegal immigrants. Trump promised that if re-elected, his administration would deploy elite forces from ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement to track, arrest and deport everyone. gang members of illegal immigrants, ensuring that no one remains in the country. “If they try to return, they will automatically face up to ten years in prison without parole,” he said for killing American citizens or law enforcement officers”.
What is the Aragua Train?
Tren de Aragua is a gang that originated in Venezuelan prisons. It is an international criminal organization that operates in several Latin American countries and is involved in extortion, murder, drug trafficking, and human smuggling. Over the years this gang has spread across America. In the US, more and more violent incidents are associated with its members.
Trump was referring to a recent incident in Aurora where gang members armed with rifles and handguns broke into an apartment and fatally shot a man. The three suspects, all illegal immigrants, were previously detained by the Border Patrol but later released into the US. The gang has established a significant presence in Colorado, with reports of its members taking control of apartment buildings in Aurora.
“Under the Maduro government, and before him, the Chavez regime, one of their ideas was to reduce incarceration and reform prisons, which basically means letting people out earlier. And this really provides a huge influx of labor for those gangs,” Simon Hankinson, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Border Security and Immigration, told Fox News.
Although the Biden administration imposed sanctions in July on Tren de Aragua, classifying the gang as a ‘significant transnational criminal organization’, Trump said further action was needed. Although the government has offered rewards of up to $12 million for information on gang leaders and increased vetting, Trump claims that Operation Aurora aims to take a more aggressive and direct approach to eliminating the gang’s presence in the country.
Last month, Texas designated a Venezuelan gang as a “foreign terrorist group.” Due to the political and economic crisis in Venezuela, many people from Venezuela are allowed to enter the US and apply for asylum. But Texas’ top border official, Mike Banks, argued that Venezuela “has released detainees on one condition: you leave Venezuela and not return.”
A few days ago, Trump’s running mate and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance confronted an ABC News host in a heated interview on Sunday, regarding members of a Venezuelan migrant gang in Aurora.
“I will stop you because I know exactly what happened. “The incidents occurred at just a few apartment complexes, and the mayor said that our dedicated police officers have acted on the matter,” the ABC host said, pressing Vance for clarification.
Vance responded in frustration, saying, “Martha, do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes in America have been taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem and not Kamala Harris’ open borders?” He added that Americans are fed up with the situation, and pointed out the need to make society “safe” again.
‘Baby-faced gangbanger’
“A group of young, baby-faced Tren de Aragua migrant gangsters at a city-funded shelter in Manhattan committed an armed robbery in Times Square — and they got away with it,” the New York Post reported a few days ago, citing officials. and sources.
Nearly two dozen young migrant thugs, some as young as 11, were part of Tren de Aragua, who robbed New Yorkers as well as tourists at gunpoint, a top NYPD official told The Post. But they managed to escape prison because of their age and the Empire State’s lenient criminal justice laws, Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino told The Post.
Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels, a crime prevention nonprofit organization, who has followed gang activity in the city for more than four decades, told Fox News Digital that Sliwa said these “Pee-Wee” criminals are running roughshod over New York City. residents without legal consequences. He cited robberies on Central Park South over the summer, saying that young gangsters operating out of the Watson Hotel on 57th Street would harass local residents.
“They went back and forth, robbed, ran back to the hotel, finally got caught, caught and released, and then did it again,” he said. “And now they are a force to be reckoned with in Times Square.”
According to Sliwa, these crimes are a rite of passage before these kids can join the gang as full members. He criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office for failing to detain arrested juvenile offenders – but in some cases, this was beyond the district attorney’s control. New York raised the age limit for trying children as adults to 18 several years ago, which officials say complicates efforts to prevent juvenile offenders from committing crimes on the streets, as Fox News Digital reported.
(With inputs from TOI and agencies)