Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “targeted” more than 100 members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) in Aurora, Colorado, on Wednesday.
The federal agents — which included officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Customs and Border Protection, and the FBI — went door-to-door to speak to residents at an apartment complex in Aurora, ABC News reported. Aurora made headlines last year after a Republican city official sounded the alarm on TdA members taking over some apartment complexes in the Denver suburb.
ICE did not specify how many arrests were made at the complex, adding that the investigation is “ongoing.”
100+ members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were targeted for arrest and detention in Aurora, Colo., today by ICE and its partners @FBI @DEAHQ @CBP @ATFHQ & @USMarshalsHQ in an ongoing investigation. pic.twitter.com/LzIVDjsee6
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) February 5, 2025
Fernando Martinez, a 54-year-old man who was not arrested in the raid, told USA Today that he was sleeping in one of his friend’s apartments at Cedar Run Apartments when ICE agents busted down the door.
“They come in with their guns drawn,” he said. “They flash banged me like three times.”
Acting Director Caleb Vitello said on Wednesday that the raid was necessary because local authorities are refusing to work with federal immigration agents.
“Unfortunately we have to come to the communities because we don’t get the cooperation that we need from the jails,” Vitello said. “It would be so much easier and so much safer for our officers and agents if we could take these people into custody from a safe environment. But if we have to come out in the community to do this, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Time and again, criminal aliens prey on their own communities with sanctuary policies, knowing they’re free to commit crimes without repercussion. ICE & its partners @FBI @DEAHQ @CBP @ATFHQ & @USMarshalsHQ are in Aurora, Colo., today to remove this very real public safety threat. pic.twitter.com/L0KtxySl0f
— ERO Denver (@ERODenver) February 5, 2025
After Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky brought attention to the gang’s activity in Aurora last August, Fox News obtained video showing armed men walking through an Aurora apartment building and entering an apartment after knocking on the door with guns drawn. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, however, dismissed the concerns over TdA taking over any apartments, saying the “purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination.”
President Donald Trump quickly ramped up arrests and deportations of violent illegal immigrants after being sworn into office on January 20, and it’s not the first time Aurora has been targeted in a large raid under the Trump administration. Last month, DEA agents busted nearly 50 members of associates of TdA at a makeshift nightclub in Aurora, where authorities seized drugs, weapons, and cash.
