Department of Homeland Security conducting multi-location operations in Aurora, Denver
The Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, and other agencies assisted the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday morning in what CBS News Colorado has learned is a multi-location operation in the cities of Aurora and Denver. One of the locations included 12th Avenue and Dallas Street, the site of The Edge at Lowry apartments that have been at the center of concern in Aurora.
The City of Aurora is in the process of closing that apartment complex after a municipal judge granted an emergency order. The property has been deemed a criminal nuisance due to persistent violent incidents including TdA gang activity and violent behavior.
Other locations included in the DHS operations are at 14th and Potomac, East 13th Avenue and Helena Street, which is the Whispering Pines apartment complex in Aurora, as well as the Cedar Run apartments at Oneida and Leetsdale and the Ivy Crossing apartments near Quebec and Harvard in Denver.
The Whispering Pines apartment complex has been under scrutiny for claims by residents of uninhabitable living conditions. The complex is owned by CBZ Management, the same property management company that owns The Edge at Lowry apartments.
At the Whispering Pines apartments in Aurora, people were being detained, according to CBS Colorado crews on the scene. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were also on the scene, along with DEA and FBI agents.
One neighbor told CBS Colorado that she carries her ID with her at all times because of the fear of being swept up in the operations, "It's not even a loss that you can mourn because they're not actually gone. You know that they're safe and alright but what's been done to them is just not fair."
Outside the Cedar Run Apartments near Leetsdale Drive and South Oneida Street, protesters were seen with signs that read "Where's your warrant?" while others shouted at officers and agents through megaphones. One person was shouting through a megaphone "Remain silent. You do not have to open the door without a warrant signed by a judge" in English and Spanish.
Another shouted at agents "Is this really what you all signed up for? Is this keeping anyone safe?"
Authorities had blocked off several roads surrounding the locations.
The DEA released a video early Wednesday morning of agents serving a search warrant in support of the operations.
The City of Aurora issued this statement to CBS Colorado: The city, including the Aurora Police Department, has not been involved in the development and activation of any federal immigration enforcement plans in Aurora. As we have said numerous times previously, Colorado state law prohibits local governments from engaging in typical immigration-specific enforcement and detention. We focus on enforcing state and local law.
To the extent that we should, need to or will confer with any of our law enforcement partners – metro, state and/or federal – about the federal law enforcement actions that are occurring in Aurora today, we will do so within the parameters of state and federal law and on a case-by-case basis as we always have. Again, we will always follow state and federal law.
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition released this statement to CBS Colorado: We are currently on-site at an apartment complex in Aurora where ICE is conducting a raid without showing a warrant, and appears to be targeting residents solely for immigration enforcement. Officials are stopping people as they leave their apartments, demanding citizenship status and identification. Despite being asked to leave, they continue to remain on-site. Families are being prevented from leaving their homes—even to take their children to school. This action, taking place in Aurora, a focal point of Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric, is a direct attempt to criminalize immigrant communities. Volunteers from the Colorado Rapid Response Network are present to witness, record, advise residents of their rights, and urge officials to leave.
Last month, CBS Colorado learned that the Denver metro area was included in the stepped-up immigration arrest operations that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been conducting under the Trump administration.
During an October 2024 campaign rally at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, President Donald Trump promised to enact what he called "Operation Aurora." Aurora made national news in August 2024 when a video that went viral showed men carrying weapons and allegedly terrorizing residents at The Edge at Lowry apartments. The word that the criminal Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, had taken over apartment buildings made Aurora ground zero for the national debate over border security.
