EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Colorado’s ‘sanctuary’ lures global gangs | Editors

In a bold piece of investigative journalism, The Gazette editors have laid bare a stinging indictment of Colorado’s reckless sanctuary policies. A smoking gun, if you will.

As The Gazette reported last week, a cache of emails obtained by our news team from the Aurora Police Department makes clear that Colorado’s reputation as a haven for illegal immigration led the Denver area’s vicious Venezuelan criminal enterprise Tren de Aragua to hoc American headquarters made.

The emails also underscore how Colorado laws — which prevent law enforcement agencies in our state from cooperating with federal authorities on illegal immigration — paved the way for the gang, also known by its initials TdA, to establish itself here to establish.

The trail of emails dates back long before the sinister gang made national news — and sparked political debate — by taking over several apartment complexes in Aurora. The gangs effectively hijacked their landlords’ properties. The gangsters shake down the mostly immigrant tenants; collected and pocketed the rent, and ran rackets, including sex trafficking prostitution, out of the apartments.

The documents show that while Texas law enforcement agencies — themselves grappling with a looming TdA threat — worked closely with the FBI, U.S. Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security, Aurora police removed a federal task force “from all communications ‘. and research.”

Meanwhile, an October 2023 internal Aurora Police bulletin obtained by The Gazette cited federal sources and noted: “Information from ICE is that TdA has decided to make Denver their U.S. headquarters and will be violent against anyone who invades their territory.”

Of course, it all comes down to numbers. Among other state and local efforts by Colorado policymakers to roll out the red carpet for immigrants entering the U.S. illegally, our state’s elected lawmakers have erected a barrier between illegal immigration and law enforcement in our state.

A 2023 law passed by the Democratic majority in the Legislature limits the ability of state and local governments to enter into agreements with federal immigration officials over the detention of immigrants who have entered the country unlawfully. A 2019 statute prevents local law enforcement agencies from arresting immigrants wanted under federal law for illegal entry.

The emails revealed by The Gazette point to other troubling dimensions of TdA’s growing presence – most notably that authorities appear to have been aware of a higher-level threat from the group longer ago than they had publicly let on.

State and some local elected leaders, as well as Denver and Aurora police, have so far given a muted response, criticizing the gang’s takeover of the Aurora apartments and, more broadly, the extent of Downplaying TdA at the local crime scene.

Instead, the emails suggest a police force is wary of tackling TdA without solid backup.

“The patrol will not respond to these locations without an armored vehicle,” an Aurora police officer wrote in one of the emails.

It is perhaps inevitable that officials will soften such troubling developments to reassure the public that they have a handle on matters. Or worse, for political reasons.

After all, it is Colorado’s predominantly Democratic political establishment that ushered in our state’s sanctuary policy. And let’s face it: sanctuary status is not good according to the polls – just days before the election.

But even if such machinations are unavoidable, they are unjustifiable in the face of such a serious threat.

It’s time for Colorado’s leaders of all political stripes to join the fight against TdA – and to unleash law enforcement so it can join forces with federal authorities to fight back.

In other words, let’s abolish the sanctuary policy that has made Colorado not only an innkeeper for the world but also, it turns out, a destination for the world’s criminals.