AURORA, Colo. — In the wake of former President Donald Trump's campaign stop in Aurora on Friday, various immigration advocates and local organizations gathered outside an apartment building tied to false migrant gang takeover allegations to push back against rhetoric that villainizes the immigrant community.
Before his visit, Trump echoed inaccurate claims that the city, as well as apartment buildings within it, have been taken over by Venezuelan gangs. He repeated these assertions during his rally speech on Friday. Organizers of the community event — held outside of apartments on Dallas Street, one of the buildings connected to takeover claims — said they wanted to showcase what they believe to be the reality of Aurora: a place where families and neighbors look out for one another.
From faith leaders to city council members, people showed up to speak at the event in support of migrants, who are at the center of the inaccuracies being spread.
"Trump's lies are dangerous and dishonest," said Henry Sandman, co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, at the event. "They’re meant to drive us apart when we are just trying to find ways to live together as a community and they’re trying to create a reality or paint a picture that’s just not true."
Those in the community said they are tired of politicians using migrants as scapegoats rather than addressing the real issues people in the community experience, including the lack of affordable housing and poor living conditions.
V Reeves, an advocate with HouseKeys Action Network, shared similar sentiments before the event.
"He [Trump] is, and other political figures are treating them like political pawns," they said. "Which they are not. They are real people with real needs."
Reeves explained that the words spoken on Trump's campaign trail have real consequences on the people they are about.
"You have people who have been applying for over a month now for other housing, and they have paid over a thousand dollars in application fees. And as soon they say where they're from, or they're Venezuelan, they're denied," they said.
Within the immigrant community, some hope people get a chance to know them before making up their minds about who they are.
"The thing is that you can't judge a book by its cover," said one tenant, who wished to remain anonymous, in Spanish. "You have to see what the person is like. We're not all the same, you know?"
They said that they wished Trump would have come to meet them and see the things he's said aren't true.
"Because I don't see the point in hating immigrants if they haven't done anything to you," they said. "We did come to this country, but we didn't come because we wanted to, but because of the situation we have in our country."