“‘Stay Away!’ Local Newspaper Editor Slams Trump for False Claims About Migrant Gangs – You Won’t Believe What He Said!”

Dave Perry, the editor of the Aurora Sentinel, penned an open letter to former President Donald Trump over the weekend and asked him not to come to Aurora, Colorado as he has promised to do. Trump made headlines during the presidential debate earlier in the month for repeating a widely debunked claim that a migrant gang had taken over part of the city, leading to the Republican mayor having to reassure his citizens the city is in fact safe.

“Mr. Trump, you say that you are driven to run for president again because you want to help people. If you’re being honest about that, please don’t come to Aurora,” began Perry in his letter, adding:

This city of almost 400,000 desperately needs assistance, but you’re not offering that.

We’ve watched what you and your running mate, Sen. JD Vance, have done in Springfield, Ohio. The proven lies that the both of you have inflated about Haitian immigrants there eating pet dogs and cats have inflicted chaos on that community. Your cruel fabrication has been repeatedly debunked by Republican officials there, and even the people who inadvertently inspired the calamity with careless social media posts.

Perry went on to compare the smear against Haitian migrants to Trump’s past statements attacking migrants. “In Springfield, and across the nation, you played to your supporters’ greatest weaknesses in trying to cement their allegiance to you. You seized on their fear of dark-skinned and foreign people. You capitalized on your supporters’ inability or unwillingness to think critically, and for themselves, about the odious things you say and do,” he wrote, adding:

Your constant riffs on Latinos, Blacks, Muslims, Asians and others, couched as “Mexicans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Iranians,” feed your supporters’ irrational fear of people who look and sound different from themselves. You have called them “vermin,” “rapists,” “murderers,” “animals,” and said that ,“They are destroying the blood of our country.”

Perry then noted that the claim that a migrant gang from Venezuela had taken over apartment buildings is something Trump “heard from people like GOP House Rep. Lauren Boebert, who does not represent Aurora, and GOP Aurora City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky” – who had become a regular on Fox News.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman (R) also initially pushed the claims during a Fox News interview in late August, where he claimed several apartment buildings “have fallen” to the gang Tren de Aragua and gang members were now collecting rent from the residents.

A week later, interim Aurora police chief Heather Morris refuted those claims publicly and Coffman, a former GOP member of Congress, eventually conceded he was “not sure where the truth is in all of this.” The claim was widely spread on social media and fueled by video of criminal activity caught on doorbell cameras, which appeared to show armed men trying to break into an apartment.

Perry went on to slam Jurinsky for promoting the claims, saying, she “apparently didn’t anticipate you would weaponize her deceit even further and tell the nation that Aurora was completely overrun with Venezuelans and the gang members those immigrants have infected the region with. Or, Jurinsky didn’t think through how such a vicious and irresponsible deceit could backfire on whatever motivated her to undertake such a scheme.” He continued:

It has endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of Latinos and Hispanics now at risk of being accused of being Venezuelan gangsters, simply by existing.

Jurinsky either didn’t understand nor care that Aurora’s version of “eating the pets” could repel future businesses from coming here, turn future residents away and hurt existing small businesses that depend on people from the region to come and shop and eat here.

Who wants to come to a community “overrun” by Venezuelan gangsters?

You say that you do, Mr. Trump, and it’s clear why.

Perry concluded by highlighting the diversity in Aurora, a major suburb outside of Denver. He argued that Aurora has struggled with taking in the “40,000 Venezuelan immigrants [who] came here” and blamed the government for not doing enough to provide additional resources.

“We need money and resources to help our newest neighbors help themselves,” Perry wrote, adding:

What Aurora doesn’t need is for you to demonize these members of our community, or anyone. We get that cultivating fear and hate among your followers somehow brings you satisfaction, or that you see it as a way to propel you back to the White House.

“That’s not what most of Aurora is about. Sure, we have a small but vocal and strategically placed minority of people too naive or indifferent to the catastrophic danger of demonizing people, but you can ignore them like we normally do,” he concluded, noting, “There is, however, nothing for you here.”