SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
President Donald Trump was in Aurora, Colorado, yesterday, rallying in a city that he calls a war zone. Mr. Trump is not likely to win Colorado next month, but Aurora, which is just east of Denver, is big part of his national message about immigration, the border and what he likes to call a country in chaos. So NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez went to Aurora to take a look.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: For two decades, Kiko Sanchez has lived on the same block off East Colfax Avenue in northwest Aurora. The 66-year-old maintenance worker describes his neighbors as hard-working working-class immigrant families.
KIKO SANCHEZ: Right here, everybody's happy at the nighttime, at weekends. Everybody sits outside and drinks some beer, barbecue, all the families and everything.
ORDOÑEZ: Sanchez shakes his head, thinking about how former President Donald Trump has turned this block into ground zero of his narrative of a dangerous migrant invasion across the country.
SANCHEZ: Everybody gots problems here and there, but not the way he's talking about it.
ORDOÑEZ: He says Trump should come see for himself.
SANCHEZ: He's going to see nothing but working people here - nothing but happy people, nothing else. There's no people with guns, no gangs around.
ORDOÑEZ: Trump did come see for himself, sort of, holding a rally on the outskirts of the city.
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DONALD TRUMP: But I've been waiting for this day, and we're here, finally, in Aurora, Colorado, to call the attention of the world - and unfortunately, the world's already got its attention - to one of the most egregious betrayals that any leader in any nation has ever inflicted on its own people.
ORDOÑEZ: It's the first time Trump has traveled to one of the cities he's name-checked as an example of what he says are the failings of the Biden-Harris administration. At the rally, he blamed Biden and Harris for allowing a violent Venezuelan street gang to take over the city.
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TRUMP: Tren de Aragua.
ORDOÑEZ: He played video of armed men appearing to extort money on Sanchez's block.
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TRUMP: They burst into the building, and they held tenants at gunpoint and at knifepoint. Ten minutes later, they opened fire at a 25-year-old man outside the building, fatally shooting him.
ORDOÑEZ: Local police and city leaders have dismissed the claims, charging that any gang activity was isolated to a few apartment complexes in a city of more than 400,000 residents.
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ORDOÑEZ: Look, to be sure, some people in Aurora agree with Trump. At a nearby shopping center, Peggy Burke, a health administrator, says she loves living here. But she no longer feels the same sense of security she used to.
PEGGY BURKE: It has become very dangerous.
ORDOÑEZ: She doesn't think Trump's going too far calling it an invasion.
BURKE: I'm more cautious about where I go and, you know, stuff like that.
ORDOÑEZ: Aurora is the third-largest city in Colorado. And as City Councilwoman Crystal Murillo says, it's not immune to big-city challenges.
CRYSTAL MURILLO: Our strength is in our diversity.
ORDOÑEZ: She says it's unfair and not accurate to extrapolate a couple of incidents and say that is the experience of all of Aurora.
MURILLO: I take it deeply personal because this is my city. This is where my family lives. This is where I live. This is where I want to choose to, like, raise a family. And I want to be here.
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ORDOÑEZ: Back at the apartments, Marco Yanez was on his way to take his son to school. Yanez, a construction worker, tries not to pay too much attention to what the politicians are saying, but he has a clear opinion about who they are.
MARCO YANEZ: (Through interpreter) Those who talk like that about Hispanics are racist. They are just racist.
ORDOÑEZ: But he shrugs when asked about how much it bothers him.
YANEZ: (Through interpreter) We are already used to it. Every four years, when the politicians come, it's always the same - always.
ORDOÑEZ: Franco Ordoñez, NPR News, Aurora, Colorado.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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