In the wake of a brutal attack at an Aurora apartment complex that led to the arrest of several alleged Venezuelan gang members. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman blasted Denver Mayor Mike Johnston over the city’s handling of new immigrants.
Coffman said on Friday that Johnston had effectively moved immigrants into Aurora while refusing to give the neighboring city basic information.
“I've confronted the mayor about it. He won't tell me how many people he sent over here. He won't tell me what benefits he gave them, what promises he made,” Coffman said at a press conference. “And so we're going through open records requests to get that information right now, and it's amazing that one mayor can't get an answer from another mayor, that he has to use a legal mechanism to get the truth.”
A new case of violence
Coffman called the press conference after more violence at The Edge at Lowry, an apartment complex in Aurora that has been home to hundreds of recent immigrants. Nineteen people are accused or being investigated for kidnapping and brutally beating two residents of the complex.
The assailants are suspected of being affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Police said both the suspects and victims are Venezuelan immigrants.
An estimated 40,000 immigrants have come through Denver during an immigration wave. Many had been directed here by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. At the peak of the crisis, shelters overflowed with immigrants, and Denver enlisted a network of nonprofits to find places for people to live.
Hundreds of people ended up in rundown Aurora apartment buildings run by CBZ Management, which soon became the focus of national media attention — especially when a video captured armed men breaking into apartments at The Edge.
On Friday, Coffman accused the Denver mayor of using the nonprofits as a way to avoid accountability for placing immigrants in Aurora.
“He didn't have to get my permission to do it. That was for political cover. But he devised a way to do it using a nonprofit to say, ‘It was a nonprofit that did it, not me.’ Well, he funded it, Denver funded it,” he said.
Johnston's office defends its 'compassion(ate)' response
Johnston’s spokeswoman Jordan Fuja said the mayor is proud that Denver responded to the newcomer crisis with “compassion.”
"We were the only city in the metro area who stood up any type of long-term plan to manage the crisis efficiently and effectively," Fuja said in a statement. "It was appropriate for Aurora to respond with swift action to address these heinous crimes and we agree that any person who commits a crime should be punished to the full extent of the law."
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But Fuja clarified that Denver did not “dump” people in Aurora or any other city for that matter.
“In fact, Denver has repeatedly coordinated with Aurora and instead of placing blame, we continue to stand ready to work with them to ensure we protect public safety,” she said.
As Denver officials called for help with immigration in 2023 and 2024, they faced hostile reactions from communities including Lakewood and El Paso and Douglas counties.
At one point, the Aurora mayor told Johnston to stop placing people at an extended-stay hotel in Aurora, saying it was displacing poor people from Aurora.
'We have the problem because you put 'em here without telling us'
Now, Coffman is blaming Denver for creating a concentration of immigrants who were vulnerable to criminal gangs.
“We have the problem because you put 'em here without telling us. So we're trying to find how many people, again, what resources they were given, what promises they were made, was there a vetting process as to who was pushed into Aurora and who was kept in Denver,” Coffman said.
The number of new arrivals has slowed dramatically in recent months, with Denver recently closing its last immigrant shelter. But an unknown number of new immigrants remain in the area.
Kiara DeMare and Allison Sherry contributed reporting.
