Trump Rebrands Mass Deportation Plan, Bashes Harris Immigration Policies

Former President Donald Trump branded his mass deportation plan after the city where he promised the program would begin, Aurora, Colorado, at a rally on Friday.
Appearing for the first time in one of the two cities where Trump said mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would begin if he wins in November, the GOP nominee said he was going to “solve this problem.”
“I make this pledge and vow to you, November 5, 2024, will be liberation day in America,” Trump told supporters. “I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered.”
As part of Operation Aurora, Trump said he would seek the death penalty for any undocumented migrant who killed an American citizen or law enforcement officer.
“Elite squads” from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, as well as federal law enforcement officers, would be sent to find undocumented immigrants and then remove them from the country, Trump said.
Flanked by posters saying “Occupied America” over photos of members of the Venezuelan gang members known to be in the area, Trump repeated claims that current border policies had made the U.S. unsafe, including that other countries had emptied prisons and mental institutions into the U.S.
“They were rough, the ones that came in,” he told supporters, saying that before he left office in early 2021, no violent criminals had been allowed to come into the country.
Trump also made familiar attacks on the Biden-Harris administration’s border policies, noting that migrants were being “flown in” to the country and bypassing border checks.
He was referring to legal methods of immigration that apply to people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who are vetted by immigration officials before they enter the U.S., via commercial airlines, on humanitarian parole, which lasts two years.
“The border will be sealed. The invasion will be stopped. The migrant flights will end and Kamala’s app for illegals will be shut down immediately, within 24 hours,” he promised to do on his first day in office.
The app Trump referred to was CBP One, which was initially started during his presidency for truck drivers crossing the border before being expanded in 2023 to allow migrants to apply for appointments with the Border Patrol.
Newsweek reached out via email to the Harris campaign for comment Friday afternoon.
Aurora gained national attention after a video showing violent Venezuelan gang members at an apartment complex went viral. News then spread of difficulties multiple buildings were having in the city.
Aurora’s Republican mayor, Mike Coffman, previously told Newsweek that while he had concerns about the southwest border, the claims about migrants in his city had been given “exaggerated importance.”
“I’m not dismissing the concerns at all, but whatever happened initially, happened. What I can tell you now is that the gangs are not in control of either complex,” the mayor said on September 6.
The issue was linked to the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, with some members later identified by Aurora’s police department.
Close to the Democratic sanctuary city of Denver, Aurora had seen an influx of immigrants in recent years, but it also has a well-established legal Venezuelan community, which Coffman said was being exploited by the gang.
“There is inadequate vetting of people at the border,” Coffman said previously. “So it’s my understanding that when you do have a concentration of Venezuelan migrants, sometimes, sadly, that criminal element follows and exploits them within their own immigrant communities.”
The issue was picked up by Trump, who claimed that the city had been overrun by violent migrant criminals. He has said this at rallies as well as in his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
After not hearing from the Trump campaign, Coffman did not attend the rally Friday.
While Aurora was still in the spotlight at the start of September, GOP Congress members, including Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, visited the area to hold a press conference, where they blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the problems. Boebert returned to the city Friday, where she spoke ahead of Trump’s appearance.
Trump promised in September he would visit both Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, which became the next city of focus for his campaign. There, baseless claims that Haitian migrants were eating pets drew attention and Trump’s support.
While the campaign decided against visiting Springfield, Trump touted his sold-out rally in Aurora on Friday. Hundreds of supporters were seen lining up outside the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, which has a capacity of 10,000 people.
Steven Miller, Trump’s senior adviser, spoke ahead of his boss’ appearance, pointing to photos of alleged criminal migrants, who he said were not the neighbors those at the rally grew up with.
“Colorado can shock the world and send Donald J. Trump back to the White House. This state is going Republican,” Miller said, promising a second Trump administration would remove undocumented immigrants from the country.
Later, Trump spoke about his strict border policies during his previous term in office and how these had been relaxed by the Biden-Harris administration, before playing montages of news clips referencing migrant crime, including in Aurora.
The former president did not appear to differentiate between alleged criminals and organized crime gangs, and those arriving seeking asylum or with legal reasons to be in the U.S.
“January 20, they’re going to be out of this country,” Trump told supporters, later saying: “Our criminals are like babies compared to these people.”
Trump’s promises of mass deportations, mainly focused on undocumented immigrants but also on those with legal status in recent weeks, have been called into question repeatedly by immigrants’ rights groups, Democrats and some members of the Republican Party.
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