While crossing the state line from Wyoming into Colorado, drivers were recently confronted with a giant billboard that read: “Venezuela Ahead, Be Prepared!”

The xenophobic political ad — funded by Donald Trump’s largest single campaign donor — is partly a response to the more than 40,000 immigrants who have arrived in the Denver metro area in the past two years, many of them Venezuelan families fleeing poverty and violence.

Further down the highway is a Denver-area city that Trump claimed – in front of 67 million people during his debate with Kamala Harris – was “taken over” by violent immigrants. Today he is holding a rally there.

But the story he told about Aurora, Colorado, is very different from the story told by city police and others. And just as Trump stoked fears of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, Aurora is at the center of a swirl of misinformation.

Aurora’s mayor, for example, said the claims were “an incredible exaggeration.”

The controversy has its roots in a municipal housing issue that surfaced in the local news over the summer — and at first glance had nothing to do with immigration.

In August, an Aurora apartment building, Aspen Grove, was closed by the city because of years of neglect and mismanagement. Leaks, mold, structural problems, a rat infestation, uncollected trash and other issues were cited.

The city informed 85 families that they had to vacate the building. Not only were residents on the streets, but they were also at the center of a political firestorm impacting the presidential election.

Zev Baumgarten, head of CBZ Management, the New York-based property management company, claimed the dilapidation was due to the building being hijacked by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA). Property managers couldn’t enter the buildings without the threat of violence, he claimed. He owns other homes that he says have faced similar problems.

Aurora’s mayor responded by calling Baumgarten an “out-of-state slumlord” who had neglected the properties, a sentiment echoed by other officials.

Because Baumgarten doesn’t live in Colorado, “he doesn’t have to realize the consequences of being an absentee landlord and not investing in his properties or even keeping them in livable condition,” Crystal said Murillo, Aurora City Council member and lifelong resident. “There have been documented violations and mismanagement for years.”

CBZ did not respond to requests for comment.

The dispute gained attention in conservative media and apparently reached Trump himself, thanks to alleged ties to migrant gangs, a favorite topic in the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign.

“We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental hospitals and insane asylums,” Trump said during his debate with Harris in September. “Look at Aurora, Colorado. They take over the cities. They take over buildings. They invade by force… And they destroy our country. They are dangerous. They are at the highest level of crime.”

But the truth about possible gang activity is far more nuanced and, according to local police, far less salient than the narrative concocted by Trump.

In July, several people were injured in a shooting at the Aspen Grove apartment building in Baumgarten. Two of the four men arrested in connection with the shooting were actually identified by Aurora police as members of the TdA.

“Our support for the vulnerable undocumented population in the city of Aurora is unquestioned,” Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain said at a news conference. “We will not over-surveil a population based on their race or ethnicity.”

In August, door camera footage appeared in the news when six armed men, later identified as Venezuelan immigrants, knocked on the door of an apartment in another Baumgarten apartment building. Minutes later, a shootout at a nearby location left 25-year-old Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo dead.

The footage was portrayed in conservative media as evidence of a TdA takeover of Aurora. However, so far none of the men in the video have been identified as a member of the TdA gang or any other. One is in custody, the other five have arrest warrants.

In total, Aurora police in the Denver metro area identified 10 people with ties to TdA, eight of whom were arrested. Still, crime in Aurora has declined overall over the past two years and is expected to continue declining in 2024.

Research from the Marshall Project shows that undocumented immigrants are not associated with increases in crime.

And Venezuelan immigrants now have to deal with the consequences of conservative rhetoric.

“I’m afraid to go out. They are accusing all of us in the complex of being in gangs and that is completely false,” Oscar Rojas, a resident, told Denver7.

Another resident told the station about hostile or disturbing encounters, such as when “an American drove by in his car with a flag and insulted people here.”

Murillo, the Aurora city councilwoman, says she walks her dog near Baumgarten’s apartments and thinks the hype about gang violence is overblown. “Ten gang members out of 400,000 people is hardly a ‘takeover’ of the city,” she says.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman initially backed up his city’s narrative by saying during an August 29 appearance on Fox News: “There are several buildings that are actually under the same ownership, non-government ownership, that are owned by these Venezuelan gangs have fallen victim.” ”

But a few weeks later, Coffman changed his stance, saying in a Facebook post that he agreed with Aurora police’s assessment that “no Venezuelan gang is in control of either of these two apartment complexes.”

Coffman could not be reached for further comment, his office said.

The problem has not gone away. Last week, Aurora City Council member Danielle Jurinsky appeared on an episode of Dr. Phil titled: Armed and Dangerous: Colorado Town Overrun by a Criminal Gang?

“These people just want to feed their children.”

Murillo and others are disappointed that tragic events have brought the city of Aurora back into the national spotlight. A young Black man, Elijah McClain, was killed in a 2019 encounter with Aurora police and paramedics when he was injected with a fatal dose of ketamine.

Previously, a gunman murdered twelve people and injured 58 in a cinema during the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises”. in 2012.

Coffman welcomes Trump’s visit to Aurora. “I want the former president to come because I want to show him this city,” he said. “I want to show him that the narrative is not at all accurate.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis responded differently.

“Of course we welcome everyone to the city of Aurora, Colorado,” he said. “But of course we are concerned about some of the criminal elements that he brings with him. He is a convicted felon himself, and many people associated with him could commit acts of terrorism against the residents of Aurora.”

Given the national attention, families forced from their homes continue to look for new homes.

“It’s been really challenging because there are a lot of rumors and false stories that suggest these families are criminal, dangerous or violent,” said Zach Neumann, co-founder of the Community Economic Defense Project in Colorado. He works with 20 of the families who were evicted from Baumgarten’s home.

“These are people who have children, some of these children have special needs. If you are displaced from your home, you will find it difficult to cook and prepare food, send your children to school, and find and keep a job. All of these important, normal activities have been made more difficult by the displacement of these families, who now cannot find a clean and decent place to live. These people just want to feed their kids and stay indoors at night.”