Overhyped, misleading claims about a “Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminal influx” in Aurora, CO are fueling anti-immigrant sentiments in English and Spanish on social media and messaging applications. DDIA has identified this claim spreading by Latino-focused and Spanish-language accounts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and Telegram. 

One of the most common techniques used to amplify disinformation is fear-mongering—the deliberate act of stirring public fear or alarm about a particular issue. Actors spreading anti-immigrant narratives in this case and countless others relied on this tactic. Anti-immigrant narratives also rely on common false claims that get recycled to portray all immigrants as “ruining the fabric of American society.” One such false claim was clearly present in this case: the claim that portrays all migrants as criminals or gang members and frames them as the source of increased crime and insecurity in the U.S. This has been proven false by FactCheck.org and deeply analyzed by the Brennan Center for Justice.

The misleading claims about TdA “taking over in Aurora” started spreading widely after Denver’s Fox31 television station shared a video on August 28 showing armed men at an Aurora apartment complex, prompting Donald Trump to repeat unverified claims that gangs were “taking over big buildings with ‘big rifles’ in the city.” Far-right-wing influencers and citizen journalists doubled down on the spread of these claims about the presence of TdA, with Spanish-language and Latino social media accounts, including mainstream Spanish-language media coverage, at times giving fuel to the fire.

The Aurora Police Department has confirmed that the Tren de Aragua, has, in fact, NOT 'taken over' the units at the complex. According to the Denver Post, “Aurora and Denver police have publicly acknowledged there are Tren de Aragua gang members in their cities, but they say the gang’s numbers are not large and they operate in isolated areas.” Additionally, dozens of residents from the apartment complex have claimed they have not been “threatened by — or even interacted with — gang members.” Furthermore, crime in Aurora has declined in 2024 compared to 2023.

Republican Mike Coffman, the Mayor of Aurora, appeared on national TV on August 29th and “posted about the Venezuelan gang on his Facebook page, contradicting his police chief about the severity of the situation” and doubling down on claims of apartment buildings being taken over by Venezuelan gangs. Coffman has since spoken to residents of the apartment and appears to have recognized that the gang has not taken over, but rather that there are issues with the landlord and property managers maintaining the complex.

This has not stopped Spanish-language and Latino social media accounts, including right-wing Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with LEXIT and Latinos with Trump, from promoting claims that attribute the entry of alleged criminals into the U.S. to the Biden-Harris Administration.

These accounts have co-opted the misleading assertions about the members of TdA to attack the administration for allegedly “fostering an ‘open borders’ policy that facilitates the unchecked entry of unauthorized migrants,” a popular disinformative claim that, per a DDIA poll of 3,015 U.S. Latino adults conducted in March and April of this year, 51% of our sample was familiar with the false claim that “Democrats are failing to secure the U.S. southern border in order to allow undocumented immigrants to vote for them in U.S. elections". Of the 51% who were familiar, 41% accepted it, 26% rejected it, and the remainder was uncertain. Said another way, in total, 22% of U.S. Latinos in the sample had seen and accepted this claim, a very concerning trend.

Notable Latino partisan influencers, such as TikTok personality Gilberto Montalvo, have reinforced narratives implying that Tren de Aragua members entered the U.S. due to Biden’s policies. Montalvo’s TikTok video has garnered more than 240,000 views and 1,700 shares.

Coverage by Univision and Telemundo have been cherry-picked to advance that narrative online. One of the most viral Spanish-language videos identified by DDIA was a TikTok post by Univision that has received over 6.1 million views and 51,000 shares. 

Four videos about the supposed invasion of an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado have also gone viral in at least ten public Spanish-language Telegram channels over the past week, spreading anti-immigrant narratives and panic. We dive into how these were amplified in the What’s Up on WhatsApp and Telegram section below.

Data from Palver, a social listening tool that monitors content shared in various formats across approximately 250 public Telegram groups, shows that, between August 28 and September 4, more than 672,000 users of this messaging app were exposed to videos showing armed men breaking down doors or assaulting people in the streets. The videos also included testimonies from women allegedly displaced by the criminals and footage of former President Donald Trump, promising to deport those responsible for the Aurora incident if re-elected in November.

Phrases such as "Bandas de Venezolanos ilegales aterrorizan ciudades de #EEUU" ("Bands of illegal Venezuelans terrorizing cities in the #USA"), “Esos venezolanos se están apoderando de todo” ("These Venezuelans are taking over everything"), and "Asegúrate de almacenar municiones" ("Make sure to stock up on ammunition") were detected by our researchers in posts aimed at spreading fear beyond Aurora. References to alleged activities of the criminal group in Denver (CO), Chicago (IL), and Dallas (TX) appeared in at least four Telegram channels, reaching over 230,000 people.

Another video—about a supposed organization of the Hell's Angels biker group preparing to go to Aurora to stop the apartment complex takeover—stood out in the materials analyzed by DDIA. Nearly 14,000 people were exposed to this recording, which claims, in Spanish, that bikers from New York are crossing the country, ready to use whatever means necessary to defend the property rights of the Aurora apartment owners. 

Fact-checking teams, including Verify, have, however, debunked this claim. There is no evidence supporting the idea that the Hell’s Angels are traveling to Colorado to confront a Venezuelan gang. The video being shared was actually filmed in Brazil in July. 

In a statement released last week, Aurora's police forces stressed that "reports of TdA [Tren de Aragua] influence in Aurora are isolated."