U.S. Rep. Jason Crow on Wednesday joined a chorus of largely Democratic politicians who have made public statements downplaying the Venezuelan gang’s activities at three apartment complexes in Aurora — after local officials admitted the city actually knew about the gang months ago, though the problem was limited to specific areas.
“Thank you to the city of Aurora for setting the record straight,” Crow said Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter. “There is no gang take over in any part of Aurora.”
Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky, who crafted the statement that Crow cited, said the congressman "(missed) the entire point of the statement."
“Recent exaggerated claims are simply not true,” Crow, who represents Aurora, continued in his tweet. “These claims have led to a narrative that makes it harder for law enforcement to do their job.”
The post was retweeted by Gov. Jared Polis.
Crow's office refused to provide a comment, pointing to his publicly-available statements.
"This sums up perfectly in one photo of what is going on in Colorado and why people can't get the truth," Jurinsky said in response to Crow's tweet. "He also misses the entire point of the statement. @jaredpolis steps in and reposts the whole thing."
She added: "The crux folks is that the statement is what I've said all along. The entire city of Aurora was not taken over. Several Apartment complexes were taken over by Tren de Aragua and people suffered because of it."
In another post, Jurinsky said neither she nor Mayor Mike Coffman ever said that the entire city had been taken over by the gang.
"You either can't read or flat out, don't care that Tren de Aragua 'had significantly affected those properties.' By significantly affected, I mean, and let be very clear for you, Jason, the Tren de Aragua gang took over entire apartment complexes. This is confirmed. Hence, the statement."
“The scale of the problem is debatable,” said Josh Penry, a Republican political consultant and former state legislator. “But to say there’s nothing to look at is embarrassing. It does not reflect well on him.”
Initially, Aurora officials dismissed claims from CBZ Management and its PR firm that the Venezuelan prison gang known as Tren de Aragua had any involvement in the deteriorating living conditions at Aspen Grove, which authorities boarded up last month. The city evicted residents from the complex, citing code violations.
Ryan Luby, a city spokesperson, blamed the landlord for the condition of the property.
Based in Brooklyn, CBZ Management operates rental apartments in New York and Colorado with 11 properties in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
The Aurora complexes affected by gangs included Aspen Grove, Whispering Pines and the Edge of Lowry.
TDA gang members have been involved in a myriad of criminal activities that include drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, human trafficking — particularly immigrant women and girls — and money laundering. The gang’s victims are often killed by gang members, with their deaths publicized as a way to intimidate others from coming forward, according to federal authorities.
Officials began walking back their statements after a video of armed men barging into apartment units surfaced and a cache of letters from a law firm representing CBZ Management — written a month before the federal government acknowledged TDA had extended its tentacles into Denver — became public.
Each new revelation — and there have been several — only served to raise public safety concerns and amplify election-year questions about the border crisis and illegal immigration. More recently, a national law firm that investigated the claims said that, through violence and intimidation, the gang took over the Whispering Pines apartment complex in Aurora and sought to collect up to half of the rent from leaseholders, drying up collections for the landlord, according to a law firm's investigation.
“It’s pretty hard to follow,” said Ian Silverii, a consultant and executive director of ProgressNow Colorado. “It feels like everything is in a reality distortion field.”
Silverii added: “The incentives on this story are so perverse and so inhumane.”
The issue took center stage earlier this week during the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, with the former president blaming the Biden administration’s border policies.
“They are taking over the towns,” Trump said. “They are taking over buildings. They're going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country.”
Coffman and Jurinsky, the city’s public safety chair, sent a joint statement a day after the debate.
“As for the perception and reality of public safety in Aurora, please understand that issues experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole or large portions of it,” the statement said. “TdA has not ‘taken over’ the city.”
"Again, TdA’s presence in Aurora is limited to specific properties, all of which the city has been addressing in various ways for months," they added.
While the city previously acknowledged the presence of gangs at apartment complexes, the statement from Coffman and Jurinsky confirmed what The Denver Gazette has reported over the past several weeks: that the city, in fact, knew about the issue months ago — or at least suspected that the gang was operating at several apartment complexes.
The Aurora Police Department also released the names of 10 suspects linked to the Venezuelan gang, of whom eight had been arrested over the past year. The information offered a comprehensive look into the gang's activities — or at least what they had been accused of perpetuating — in metro Denver. Their alleged crimes included shootings, a beating, and threats to kill.
The attempt to “get on the same page” five weeks after the issue began unfolding in Aurora — Silverii said — was a little too little too late.
“There’s no unringing the bell,” Silverii said.
The way Silverii sees it, Aurora officials do not bear the blame alone: A fractured media system that either downplays the gang involvement or capitalizes on the salacious details is also to blame.
For Penry’s part, the issue is emblematic of a federal government as yet incapable of addressing an immigration problem that is transforming cities and counties across the nation.
“We’ve sadly become a country where everything is a red versus blue narrative,” Penry said.
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