DENVER (KDVR) — Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky spoke out in a November committee meeting to tell the police department, city council and city staff that President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan is “coming.”

Jurinsky made the comments at a meeting of the Aurora City Council Public Safety, Courts and Civil Service Committee on Nov. 14, which she chairs. The committee meets monthly and will not meet again until 2025.

Also at the meeting was new Aurora Police Department Chief Todd Chamberlain, who was asked if the police agency needed support and more aid from surrounding agencies, such as the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office or the National Guard. He said that is not needed and would be a demoralizing move for his staff.

Chamberlain also noted that while there are troubled spots that the department is focused on, overall crime in Aurora is markedly down. He noted a 31% drop in motor vehicle thefts, a 4.5% drop in robberies, an 11.6% decrease in non-fatal shootings, and an 11.1% decrease in homicides.

“So again, that tells the story that crime is going down,” Chamberlain said. “There are problem areas that we are going to focus on, but I’m not to a point where I’m going to break the glass and say that we need other agencies to come in.”

Jurinsky said during the meeting that she was willing to “throw money” at the police department if that would solve crime in the city.

“I would just like to say that ‘Operation Aurora’ is coming, as you’ve all heard, this is the real thing,” Jurinsky said. “But on a very serious note, there seems to be a disconnect (between) the incoming Administration and the city of Aurora, so I hope that we are taking this seriously.”

What is ‘Operation Aurora,’ and when was it presented?

At a rally held in Aurora in October, President-elect Donald Trump announced a plan named “Operation Aurora” to remove migrants who entered the country illegally and may be involved in gangs.

The then-candidate said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to “target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.”

“We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country,” Trump said.

He also called for an automatic 10-year jail sentence with no parole for anyone who returns to the U.S.

“And, I’m hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer,” Trump said at the Aurora rally.

Trump first began to focus on Aurora after a video showing armed men in a stairwell of an Aurora apartment complex where shootings had been reported. Police reported in October that all six men in the video had been identified, and FOX31 verified that at least two were Venezuelan citizens.

The Aurora Police Department has said several times that the narrative of apartment buildings “taken over” by gangs was “false.” However, sources told Nexstar partner NewsNation that Tren de Aragua gang members have been arrested and tied to Aurora.

Jurinsky says Aurora police are trying to ‘bury’ gang connections

Days after the November committee meeting, Jurinsky posted on social media to say Aurora police were trying to “bury” any international gang issues in the city. The statements came after two men were arrested in New York in connection to a viral apartment video showing armed men entering Aurora units.

Sources told NewsNation that Danyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edilson Pena Angulo, 25 were taken into federal custody during a night raid. The men were in the U.S. illegally, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson, and verified they were part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Jurinsky said that Aurora police officers issued warrants for the pair’s arrests, and “know the truth,” but claims that Aurora Police Department “leadership has been lockstep trying to bury this.”

“I’m just not sure why,” her post on X continued. “The reason these men weren’t identified as TdA is because @AuroraPD leadership told officers to stop confirming anyone as gang members. If no one is confirmed, there is no gang problem, ya see? The command staff responsible for this dereliction of duty is still in place in @AuroraPD. When this all comes out in court, and it will. When officers start taking the stand, and they will. @AuroraGov is going to have some serious explaining to do.”

After the initial news of possible criminal activity at Aurora apartments from Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the Aurora Police Department began distancing itself from confirming whether those they tied to the viral apartment video showing six men entering an apartment were members. In September, the agency said it had no evidence to support that connection.

“At this time, we do not have any information that leads us to believe or points to these individuals being involved in any specific gang. As we continue our investigation, if that information comes out, we will explore those leads as we do,” Aurora Police Lt. DJ Tisdale from the Special Operations Division said on Sept. 20.

Chamberlain said that the agency cannot identify any suspects as Tren de Aragua gang members unless they self-identify.

“We can say this tattoo or this mark, this is an aspect of a TdA gang member,” Chamberlain explained in September. “But the one thing that I think is positive with most gang members is that they do like to brag and they’re very verbose, and I think that after a while you’ll start to see individuals start to identify or self-identify as ‘yeah, I’m a TdA gang member’ or yeah, I’m a whatever gang they’re affiliated with.”

The agency also does not want to improperly label someone a gang member when they’re not associated.

“It’s going to take time; it’s going to take very specific investigation and it’s going to [be] making sure that we don’t misidentify somebody because I think that’s really important too. If you identify somebody as a gang member, that stays with them the rest of their life, that is what I am not going to do in this agency,” Chamberlain said.

ACLU of Colorado decries ‘Operation Aurora,’ deportations

In a statement issued Wednesday, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Tim Macdonald decried the plan to deport migrants en masse from the United States and particularly from areas of Colorado.

“It is clear, with the re-election of former President Donald Trump, that feelings of fear and uncertainty are spreading through immigrant communities across the country. Trump has promised to use totalitarian tactics to carry out the largest mass detention and deportation program in our nation’s history, including launching what he calls ‘Operation Aurora’ to deport immigrants en masse, including from places in Colorado,” Macdonald said.

He noted federal and state constitutional protections and said that the ACLU of Colorado will fight to protect those rights.

“State law is clear in prohibiting certain kinds of collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. State and local governments cannot enter agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other agencies to detain individuals for federal civil immigration purposes. State law also forbids state and local governments from contracting with private companies to operate immigration detention facilities,” Macdonald said.

“Additionally, local law enforcement cannot arrest or detain someone based on civil immigration detainers and cannot make civil immigration arrests. Probation officers and staff also cannot provide information to federal immigration authorities,” he continued.

Macdonald called on local law enforcement to prioritize public safety “for all, including Coloradans that happen to be born outside of the United States.”