Former President Donald Trump will visit Aurora, Colorado, for a campaign rally on Friday after weeks of spreading misleading narratives about the city’s migrant population.

In the final weeks of his campaign, Trump continued to focus on the issue of immigration, ratcheting up his rhetoric against undocumented immigrants, whom he often portrays as violent criminals.

In particular, the former president used Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, to make his point. Both examples come from viral online stories that he quickly spread, often without proper context.

His false narratives about Aurora began last month when a video of armed people roaming around an apartment complex in Aurora went viral among right-wing social media influencers.

Trump, who shared this video himself, has repeatedly claimed that members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have “taken over” apartment complexes and “overrun” the city, although Aurora police have denied allegations that the apartment complex was run by a Venezuelan Band.

Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain has directly rejected Trump’s claims, saying in a press conference late last month: “This is not an immigration issue. This is a crime issue.”

“We will by no means be overtaken by Venezuelan gangs,” he added.

The city of Aurora also clarified the situation in a post on its official X account, saying that while there was concern about a “low” presence of Venezuelan gang members in Aurora, the city was taking the situation seriously. The city emphasized that Aurora is a “safe community” and that reports of gang members related to “only a handful of problem properties.”

Yet Trump has continued to promote these debunked stories as slogans to his supporters across the country as he attacks the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies.

In the press release announcing Friday’s event, Trump’s campaign called Aurora a “war zone” and argued that people were crossing the border and pouring into the city, “bringing chaos and fear.”

Similarly, Trump has repeatedly amplified debunked claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield.

Trump’s visit is one he has wanted to make for some time to draw more attention to the country’s immigration policy. At recent campaign events, Trump has been more vocal about his desire to visit Aurora and Springfield.

While Springfield’s Republican Mayor Rob Rue discouraged visits from candidates on both sides of the aisle, Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has portrayed the trip as a learning opportunity for the former president.

“The reality is that Donald Trump continues to spread economically damaging and hurtful lies about Aurora,” Polis said in a statement to ABC affiliate Denver7 amid ongoing discussions about a possible visit. “When former President Trump actually visits, he will find that the city of Aurora is a strong, vibrant and diverse city with more than 400,000 hard-working Coloradans and a wonderful place to live, run a business, raise a family and to retirement.”

Trump has launched attacks on local and state officials during the campaign, often making baseless claims that Democratic Mayor Mike Coffman and Polis are “petrified” of not wanting to address the immigration issue because they want to be “politically correct.”

While campaigning in Uniondale, New York, last month, Trump said he planned to visit Aurora and Springfield soon, but suggested he might not be able to make it after his visit to those locations for unspecified crimes .

“I will be going there in the next two weeks. “I’m going to Springfield and I’m going to Aurora,” Trump said in Uniondale. “You may never see me again, but that’s okay. I have to do what I have to do. What happened to Trump? ‘Well, he never got out of Springfield.'”

Trump’s visit to Aurora also comes as he campaigned to begin his promise of mass deportations in Springfield and Aurora.

“We are going to see the largest deportation in the history of our country,” Trump said as he answered reporters’ questions in Los Angeles, California, last month. “And we’ll start with Springfield and Aurora (Colorado).”

“We’re going to take these violent people and send them back to their country, and when they come back, they’re going to pay a hell of a price,” Trump also said.

Springfield is home to many Haitian residents who are either legally allowed to live and work in the United States or are legally protected from deportation.