Donald Trump will hold a rally in Aurora on Friday, a campaign stop more focused on the national conversation about immigration than an election surge in Colorado, where polls show the former president is deeply unpopular.

Trump’s presidential campaign team announced the visit on Monday evening. He will speak at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center near Denver International Airport at 1 p.m

The rally comes after Trump announced last month he would visit Aurora as part of his exaggerated claims about the influence of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, in the city. The former president has falsely claimed that the Venezuelan gang has taken over “the whole city.”

Trump said if he is reelected, his massive national deportation plan will begin in Aurora and Springfield, Ohio, where he has said without evidence that Haitian immigrants are eating other people’s pets.

Trump has used Aurora and Springfield to attack Democrats on immigration. The former president promised on Sept. 18 to visit Aurora and Springfield within two weeks, a deadline that has passed.

The immigration light in Aurora has dimmed over the past two weeks. Trump’s visit is sure to reverse that.

Although a handful of Tren de Aragua members were arrested in Aurora, claims that they took control are either exaggerated or completely debunked.

“Based on our initial investigative work, we believe reports of TdA influence in Aurora are isolated,” Aurora police said in a statement.

Still, in a statement announcing the visit, the Trump campaign called Aurora, which is east of Denver, a “war zone.”

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, a Republican who lost his bid for congressional reelection in 2018 largely because of Trump’s unpopularity, welcomed Trump’s visit as a chance to set the record straight.

The Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center is far from the parts of Aurora where TdA was allegedly active. In fact, the resort is located in a small part of the city that is surrounded by Denver on three sides.

“We approached the situation from a law enforcement perspective,” Coffman, who served five terms in Congress, told The Colorado Sun last month. “I think it will be an opportunity to change the narrative for the city.”

Although polls show Trump running a tight race nationally against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump is widely expected to lose to Harris in Colorado. Recent polls have shown him trailing Harris by as much as 15 percentage points in the Centennial State.

In 2020, Trump lost to Joe Biden in Colorado by 13.5 percentage points.

Republicans have not won a statewide race in Colorado since 2016.

Trump has not appeared publicly in Colorado since February 2020, when he held a rally in Colorado Springs with then-U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican.

He recently attended a private campaign fundraiser in Aspen, an event co-hosted by Larry Mizel and his wife, Carol. Larry Mizel is a Republican major donor and Israel supporter who lives in Denver and is the founder and chairman of MDC Holdings, a home building company headquartered in Denver.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s vice president, was scheduled to visit Colorado on Tuesday and attend a private fundraiser hosted by Larry Mizel and Gardner.