Donald Trump detoured from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that has been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanising language, that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns.
Trump’s rally in Aurora marked the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide.
The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in US history and has made immigration core to his political persona since the day he launched his first campaign in 2015.
Over the last few months, Trump has pinpointed specific smaller communities that have seen large arrivals of migrants, with tensions flaring locally over resources and some long-time residents expressing distrust about sudden demographic changes.
Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver, and the area is again safe.
Ignoring those denials from local authorities, Trump painted a picture of apartment complexes overrun by “barbaric thugs” and streets unsafe to travel, blaming US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival.
