Federal immigration authorities are focusing on Aurora, Colorado, a town made famous by surveillance video that showed Venezuelan gang members forcing their way into an apartment.
Sources told NBC news that raids would be conducted in Aurora, a city of about 400,000 located 40 minutes outside of Denver. President Trump had referred to the community as having been "infected by Venezuela," however the Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain pushed back, telling NBC News that Aurora is "very safe."
The news of the impending raids come as police in New York apprehended Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25. The New York Post described Zambrano-Pacheco as a ringleader of the Tren de Aragua street gang. He was one of the individuals captured on the apartment surveillance video in Aurora and was wanted on kidnapping, burglary, and menacing.
The planned Aurora raids are part of the Trump administration's stepped-up deportation efforts. Acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello gave leaders of ICE's field offices a goal to increase their daily arrest numbers to 1,200 to 1,500, NBC reported.
The network reported that agents from across federal agencies will surge into three cities per week to conduct expanded operations and boost the number of arrests.
