Trump claims migrants who kill Americans will face death penalty if he is elected

Donald Trump has pledged that any migrants who kill American citizens will face the death penalty if he is elected.
The Republican presidential candidate made the announcement as he revealed plans to dismantle gangs of illegal migrants he claims have “overrun” US towns and cities.
“I am hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills any American citizen or a law enforcement officer,” Trump told a rally of supporters in Aurora, Colorado.
The former president has previously claimed that the city had been turned into a “war zone” by members of Tren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang.
He announced plans to “expedite the removals of these savage gangs” by invoking the Illegal Aliens Act, a law from 1798 that allows the president to declare an “invasion” and deport non-citizens.
“We will send elite squads of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers and arrest and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left,” Trump said, dubbing the scheme “Operation Aurora”.
Those who attempt to return to the US after being deported would be locked up for 10 years without the possibility of parole, he added.
He claimed that multiple apartments in Aurora had been taken over by Tren de Aragua, and that it was just one of several US cities that had been “invaded and conquered” by foreign criminals. Local officials have pushed back on the characterisation.
In July, two men arrested following a shooting in Aurora were identified by police as members of Tren de Aragua.
A month later, door camera footage was published allegedly showing armed members of the gang knocking on the door of an apartment building in the city.
Speaking on Friday, Trump claimed that he would deport “every single illegal alien gang member from our country” and “seal the border” on his first day in office, assuming he beats Kamala Harris in the presidential election.
If Ms Harris wins in November, then the US will turn into “Venezuela on steroids”, he added.
The former president suggested the immigration issue would help him claim victory in Colorado in the forthcoming election. The state has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump has long taken a hardline stance on illegal immigration. Earlier this year, he said he would seek to institute an automatic death penalty for human traffickers and drug smugglers.
He repeated claims that countries such as Venezuela had managed to cut their crime rates by dumping busloads of criminals in the US.
“Our criminals are like babies compared to these people,” Trump added.
“These people are the most violent people on earth. And remember they don’t just come from South America, they come from the Congo in Africa. They come from all over the world. They come from the Middle East. They come from Asia.”
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“We will reclaim our sovereignty and Colorado will vote for Trump as a protest and signal to the world that we are not going to take it anymore,” Donald Trump says.
After proclaiming he will make America “powerful”, “wealthy” and “great” again, he concludes his address to the rally. He remains on stage as “YMCA” plays, pumping his fist and clapping.
“Under the Trump administration, we will put American citizens first, American children first, American patients first, American taxpayers first, American workers, first, and American communities first,” Donald Trump says.
“We will put Communists, Marxists, and Fascists last. And they will always be past.”
“I will bring back Title 42 medical rejections,” Trump pledges, referring to a practice his White House adopted to deport illegal migrants during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In Aurora, nearly 3,000 migrant children had been placed into your elementary school, schools and high schools, once again, at your expense,” Donald Trump claims.
“These massive new burdens on our education and health care systems are being experienced by communities all across our country, destroying your children’s education, safety, and indeed destroying their lives.”
He returns to his attacks on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), claiming it has spent “billions and billions of dollars illegally allowing people to come into our country”.
The former president appears to be referring to the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which is funded by Congress.
Donald Trump is now criticising Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s stance on the military. The rally is played clips from “Full Metal Jacket” – a film he often invokes at campaign events – contrasted against TikTok videos of trans members of the armed services.
Donald Trump is now attacking Kamala Harris on her economic record, claiming that there was “no inflation” during his time in the White House. “The economy has been a disaster,” he continues.
“We’re a country in tremendous distress. We’re a failing country,” Donald Trump says.
“We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol and federal law enforcement officers and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left.
“And if they come back into our country, they will be told it is an automatic 10 years in jail with no possibility of parole.”
Trump adds that he is calling for “the death penalty for any migrant that kills any American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
“I’m announcing today that, upon taking office, we will have an Operation Aurora at the federal level,” Donald Trump says.
This is to “expedite the removals of these savage gangs, and I will invoke the alien enemies act of 1798… that’s a long time ago, right?”
Donald Trump claims that criminal gangs is taking over apartments, comparing them to a real estate developer.
“They’re like in the real estate business, like I used to be,” he says. 
“They take over a lot of real estate, but they do it by gunpoint – I had to borrow money.”
Donald Trump labels The New York Times and the Washington Post “the enemy of the people” and claims they are “failing” businesses.
“The border will be sealed, the invasion will be stopped, the migrant flights will end and Kamala’s app for illegals will be shut down immediately within 24 hours,” Donald Trump says.
“On that same day we will begin the task of finding and deporting every single illegal alien gang member from our country. We will get them out this will be a major national undertaking.”
He claims members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency are “as tough as hell” and should be fighting in the UFC.
“If you take a look at Springfield, Ohio, how about that. They had about 50,000 people, no crime, beautiful community,” Trump says.
“They dropped in 32,000 people that are really illegal… they took them in through probation.”
He claims: “If you want to go to the hospital, you can’t get in, your children can’t get into school.
“This community was hit with 32,000 illegal migrants, they have to go back, I’m sorry.”
The former president does not return to a conspiracy theory he spread about Haitian migrants eating dogs and cats in the Ohio town.
Donald Trump claims that Kamala Harris is using “massive Boeing airplanes” to fly migrants over the border.
“She actually created an app, a phone system, where they can call up. I mean, she’s a criminal,” he adds, apparently referring to the CBP One app.
Trump claims that the US will turn into “Venezuela on steroids” if Kamala Harris wins the election in November.
Donald Trump claims that Joe Biden, the US President, could have unilaterally decided to close the border with Mexico to clamp down on illegal immigration.
Mr Biden could have said “this is the president of the United States speaking. Close the border,” Trump claimed. “You don’t need a bill. But he doesn’t want to do that.”
The US President signed an executive order to limit asylum claims at the southern border in June. Migrant encounters have dropped significantly since then.
The former president claims that Mr Biden “hates” Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate he endorsed back in July.
“Every country… they take the world’s criminal, gang members, drug dealers and they deposit them into the United States,” Donald Trump claims.
“Bus after bus after bus. In Venezuela their crime rate went down 72 per cent. You know why? Because they took the criminals out of Caracas.
He adds: “And we have to live with these animals. But we’re not going to live with them for long.”
Trump claims that Kamala Harris will “release and resettle all illegals without checking” and is more liberal than “Crazy Bernie Sanders”, the Vermont senator.
“Women like me, because I will be your protector, and I protected you for four years,” Donald Trump says.
“We had no wars, we had no terrorism, we had none of these things that you see today at levels that nobody in the world is experiencing. 
“And I said, I will be your protector. They said, Who the hell is he? But women didn’t say that. The women want protection.”
The former president claims he “knocked out” the terror group Isis in just a month in office.
“Our criminals are like babies compared to these people,” Donald Trump says, returning to the subject of migrant gangs.
“These people are the most violent people on earth. And remember they don’t just come from South America, they come from the Congo in Africa. They come from all over the world. They come from the Middle East. They come from Asia.”
He adds: “The other thing is they’re really great if you happen to be running against the politician that allowed this to happen.”
“I always try and think of very evil people. Give me the most, and I’ll tell you I was investigated more,” Donald Trump says, claiming he has been persecuted by Joe Biden’s administration.
One member of the crowd shouts out “Hillary Clinton”, prompting a laugh from the former president.
Donald Trump asks the crowd is they would have believed five years ago that “a Venezuelan gang with the most sophisticated rifles, weapons and guns that anybody has ever seen would be taking over your state?”
Moving onto a row about edits made to Kamala Harris’ 60 Minutes interview, he claims the broadcaster, CBS, is “as crooked as hell”.
“Her statement was so bad that rather than airing it they cut it out,” he says, labelling it “the greatest scandal in broadcast history”.
Trump questions whether the same happened in interviews with Joe Biden, the US President.
“January 20, those guys are going to be out on their asses, and they’re going to be out of this country,” Donald Trump says, referring to the date of the presidential inauguration.
He says Aurora was once “peaceful” and “beautiful” but now sees gangs “beat down doors with hammers and engage in open gun battles”.
“You can’t live with these people, these are stone cold killers,” Donald Trump says, apparently referring to gangs of criminal migrants.
“You could be walking down the street with your husband. You’ll both be dead. They won’t even remember they did it the following morning.”
He says that he hopes there will be a “tremendous protest vote” for him.
“Colorado is going to vote for me because I am going to make Colorado safe again,” Trump claims.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered. These towns have been conquered – explain that to your governor, he doesn’t have clue,” Donald Trump says.
“We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminal in jail or kick them out of country. And we will be very, very effective in doing it. It’s going to happen very, very fast.”
“We had the safest border in the history of our country, we never had a border so safe – all they had to do was leave it,” Donald Trump claims.
“Now America is known all throughout the world as occupied America.. we’re being occupied by a criminal force.”
He claims that election day, November 5, will become known as the US’ “Liberation Day”.
Donald Trump claims that illegal migrants have been given “the best guns… who gives them better guns than our military has?”
Donald Trump says he is in Colorado because “this state has to flip Republican”. “That’s why I’m here,” he says. “I’m not here for my health.”
Colorado has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2004. It did not vote for Trump in either the 2016 or 2020 elections.
“No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this community can ever be allowed to become the president of the United States,” Donald Trump says.
He also hits out at the “weak and ineffective” Colorado governor, Jared Polis, whose name draws boos from the crowd.
“In Aurora, multiple apartment complexes have been taken over by the savage Venezuela prison gang known as Tren de Aragua,” Donald Trump says. Local officials, including Republicans, have pushed back at the claim.
“They’re known all over the world. They’re a savage gang, one of the worst in the world, and they’re getting bigger all the time because of our stupidity.”
Trump says he is in Aurora to “call the attention of the world… to one of the most egregious betrayals that any leader in any nation has ever inflicted on its own people.
“They are destroying, they are ruining our country. We are being led by stupid people, we cannot take it anymore.”
He continues: “Kamala has imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrants criminals from the dungeons of the third world… from prisons and jails, insane asylums.”
They have been resettled in the US “to prey upon innocent American citizens,” Trump claims. “And no place is it more evident than right here.”
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential Republican candidate, is at the Aurora rally to support Donald Trump.
“What the hell is happening with our country?” Donald Trump begins. “What are they doing to Colorado – they’re ruining your state?”
He signals he wants to thank the “really great” officials who have turned up to the rally, but not before telling the crowd: “You know what you’re doing to do? You’re going to vote for Trump, and we’ll solve your problem in about 15 minutes.”
Donald Trump is making his way onstage as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” rings around the rally venue. The crowd takes up a chant of “USA, USA” as the music dies down.
“We don’t need in this country homeless migrants, criminal migrants,” Stephen Miller tells the rally. 
“We don’t need migrants consuming and depleting our public resources, overwhelming our public schools, overwhelming our hospitals, taking over our apartment buildings and, yes, murdering innocent Americans”
“You have a right to love the community you grew up in… You have a right to want a country that is of, by, and for Americans, and only Americans.”
Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, is up now. “The patriots in this room are going to be the ones who elect President Trump to end the invasion, to end the occupation, and to send the illegals back home,” he tells the crowd.
Donald Trump will reportedly announce plans to dismantle a Venezuelan gang he claims has overrun Aurora when he speaks at the Colorado city later today.
The Republican presidential candidate will set out how he will target the Tren de Aragua gang as part of “Operation Aurora”, according to the National Pulse. 
The crackdown will apparently rely on Alien Enemies Act, a piece of 18th-century legislation which gives the president the power to declare an “invasion” and deport non-citizens.
Donald Trump is expected to speak at the Aurora, Colorado rally around 3:00pm EDT today. We’ll let you know as soon as the Republican candidate appears.
Donald Trump will talk about “how he will deport criminal illegal immigrants and make America safe again” in his Aurora rally today, according to a statement from his campaign.
It continues: “Kamala Harris’ open border policies have allowed Tren de Aragua, a gang of Venezuelan illegal immigrants, to terrorise Aurora, Colorado.”
In Aurora, Colorado, according to Donald Trump, “nests of bad people” with “big rifles” are taking over “big buildings”.
He is heading to the town on Friday, the latest stop off on his campaign trail.
It is one of two unverified claims about immigration that the former president has made on the campaign trail in recent days and his comments about Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio have garnered the most attention.
But it is in Aurora, a sprawling satellite city of Denver with the greatest share of foreign-born residents in Colorado, that there is at least some validity to Trump’s claims.
Read the full story from Edward Helmore here.
Hello and welcome to the live blog. Benedict Smith here. We’ll be bringing you the latest updates as Donald Trump prepares to address a rally in Aurora, Colorado.