Donald Trump’s visit to Aurora on Friday for a sold-out rally will be the first major public event by a major party presidential candidate in Colorado this year – with Trump’s visit motivated by the opportunity to amplify his rhetoric about migrants rather than them exploits any likely prospect of winning Colorado.

His planned afternoon stop on the northern edge of Aurora, near the airport, comes three weeks after the former president and current Republican candidate promised to visit a suburban town that he has falsely claimed has been overrun by Venezuelan gangs. His visit was praised by some Republican officials, opposed by Democrats and met with attempts by city officials to refute his repeated exaggerations of gang problems that were most evident in a few apartment complexes in Aurora.

Trump is scheduled to speak at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center at 1 p.m. Doors for the event open at 9 a.m., according to the Trump campaign. Trump will then travel to Reno, Nevada for another rally, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time.

The campaign has not released any further information about the event and campaign staff did not respond to a message seeking information about the number of tickets distributed. But a receptionist at the Gaylord said Thursday that the event would be held indoors and would have a capacity of 10,000 people.

The campaign has not yet announced any additional speakers or attendees, although a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert said the congresswoman plans to attend, as does Rep. Gabe Evans, who is running for Congress in Denver’s northern suburbs. That includes Jeff Crank, a Republican running for a congressional district in Colorado Springs. Evans and Crank could speak at the rally, their spokespeople said.

Spokespeople for the Aurora and Denver police departments did not provide details about the logistical planning of the event. The Aurora spokesman said the department may seek assistance from other agencies if needed.

Trump’s visit comes amid the former president’s ongoing – and often inaccurate – focus on Aurora and what local officials have described as a “limited” presence of a Venezuelan gang; These concerns were primarily linked to a group of dilapidated apartment buildings. This is part of Trump’s broader focus on immigration, often using anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The former president’s campaign called Aurora a “war zone” when it announced rally plans earlier this week, and Trump referenced the situation in Aurora twice last month during his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. Denver television station Fox31 reported that the Trump campaign invited the woman who recorded a now-infamous video of gunmen in the hallways of an Aurora apartment building to the rally.

In a statement this week, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman – a Republican whose 2018 congressional re-election defeat prompted a dry “Too bad, Mike” response from Trump – said the visit was “an opportunity to show him and the nation that Aurora is a fairly safe city.” City – not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs. My public offer to show him our community and meet with our police chief for a meeting remains standing.”

Coffman said “concerns about Venezuelan gang activity” had been “vastly exaggerated.”

Concerns about the demonization of immigrants

Residents of apartments at the center of the firestorm planned to hold an event and press conference in response to Trump’s rally Friday afternoon, an organizer told The Denver Post. The Denver chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation has also announced plans to hold a drum circle outside the Gaylord “and make some noise.”

A group of unions and community groups — a coalition that includes the major state workers union — released a statement Thursday condemning “the racist and divisive lies that MAGA Republicans are trying to tell us about terrible living conditions.” to distract in the apartments.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat who represents Aurora in Congress, told Colorado Politics that Trump has exaggerated the city’s problems and that elected leaders are “addressing our public safety issues and our housing issues and we don’t need anyone else.” is coming.” and telling lies and demonizing our immigrants and refugees.”

Aurora’s crime rate follows a national downward trend. This is despite — or, some argue, partly because of — the influx of Venezuelans fleeing their country and fleeing to Colorado and other cities across the country.

Several studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. But Aurora is also an example of how Trump has been able to use real but isolated episodes of violence among migrants to destroy an entire population. He uses these examples to paint a picture of a country descending into chaos due to what he regularly calls an immigrant “invasion.”

“See what they’re doing in Colorado? They are taking power,” Trump, who often warns about “migrant crime,” said of Venezuelan gang members during a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. “They take over real estate. You will be a real estate developer from Venezuela. They have equipment that our military doesn’t have.”

Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, noted that Aurora, a city of 400,000, has long struggled to shake off its reputation as Colorado’s rougher big city. A fifth of Aurora’s residents were born in another country.

“This is a safer city than ever before,” Polis told The Associated Press in an interview. “Things are going really great” in Aurora, Polis added, “and I don’t want this bizarre counter-narrative out there.”

Polls in Colorado favor Harris

Trump’s campaign is unlikely to change the political tide in Colorado, a now reliably blue state that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won by five percentage points in 2016 and President Joe Biden won by more than 13 points four years ago. Recent polls give Harris a double-digit lead over Trump in the Centennial State.

The last major campaign rally by presidential candidates in Colorado was four years ago, when Trump held an event in Colorado Springs. This time, major party candidates and their surrogates visited the state for campaign stops just to raise money.

Harris visited Denver in her capacity as vice president for a post-State of the Union event in March, several months before Biden dropped out of the race. After she was named a candidate, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, led a fundraiser in Denver in August.