A city council member in Aurora, a Denver suburb, is voicing her frustration with state leaders over sanctuary policies that she believes have invited the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and its violent crimes into her community.
Danielle Jurinsky, a leading voice against providing incentives to migrants in Aurora, has expressed growing concern as the gang has begun spilling into her city. This comes after the Aurora City Council passed a resolution in February refusing to offer aid to migrants from neighboring cities. However, Denver, a sanctuary city, continues to attract more migrants, many from Venezuela, with over 40,000 new arrivals since December 2022, told Fox News.
Jurinsky is not holding back in her criticism. “To our governor and to the mayor of Denver, I refuse to be silenced. I refuse to play the game of politics with you regarding this migrant crisis. And I will continue to speak up and speak out and help as many people as I can,” she told The Post. The offices of the governor and the mayor have yet to respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
The councilwoman also blamed the Biden-Harris administration, stating that the people of Aurora are “suffering” under their policies. According to authorities, Tren de Aragua has established a foothold in Aurora, a city of 390,000 located just east of Denver. The gang has seized control of several apartment buildings and is responsible for a wave of violent crimes, including robberies, shootings, and assaults.
“I worry about everything that I know regarding this gang. And I worry about everything that I don’t know,” Jurinsky said, highlighting the uncertainty and fear surrounding the gang’s presence.
The gang’s regional leader, Jhonardy Jose Pacheco-Chirino, known as “Galleta” (Spanish for “Cookie”), has been identified by The Post as the “shot-caller” in the area. Pacheco-Chirino and his associates allegedly brutally beat a man at an apartment complex controlled by the gang. He was arrested but released on bail, only to be caught again in July for a shooting at the same complex that left two men wounded.
Tren de Aragua, originally from Venezuela’s Aragua region, has been infiltrating the U.S. by sending its members across the U.S.-Mexico border and recruiting within migrant communities, particularly in New York, Denver, and Chicago. Homeland Security sources have linked the gang to several violent crimes in sanctuary states, including the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the shooting of two NYPD officers in June. The gang is also suspected of smuggling guns into local migrant shelters.
In Denver, Tren de Aragua member Jean Torres-Roman, 21, was allegedly involved in a violent, caught-on-camera robbery of a jewelry store on June 25. Torres-Roman, who had been released from custody in Chicago a month earlier after being caught with a stolen gun, fled to El Paso, Texas, after the robbery but was apprehended at a local motel.
Adding to the alarm, the gang’s leadership recently issued a “green light” for its members to shoot and attack law enforcement officers across the U.S.