The gang situation in Aurora took center stage during the first presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night.

“You see what’s happening with towns throughout the United States,” Trump said in response to a question about the economy, the first subject of the debate.

“You look at Springfield in Ohio. You look at Aurora in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They are taking over buildings. They’re going in violently. These are the people that she and Biden let into our country.”

Trump added, “They’re dangerous. They’re at the highest level of criminality, and we have to get them out.”

The two candidates later sparred over the Biden-Harris administration’s policies on the border and Trump’s plan to deport immigrants who are illegally staying in the country.

The issue of Venezuelan gangs in Aurora made news starting last month, when officials shuttered Aspen Grove Apartments — evicting roughly 300 people — and cited a string of health and safety issues that included rodent infestations, sewage backups and trash pileups, water leaks, and a lack of electricity.

More recently, a law firm said that, through violence and intimidation, the Venezuelan gang took over the Whispering Pines apartment complex in Aurora and sought to collect up to half of the rent from leaseholders, drying up collections for the landlord.

The law firm, Perkins Coie, said once the gang was entrenched at the complex, it used the units for illegal activities, including the prostitution of minors. The gang, the law firm added, “operated in the open,” patrolled the area and “terrorized the community.”

Through a Florida PR firm, the landlord blamed the deteriorating conditions at Aspen Grove on gang activity — an allegation that city officials initially denied, and later walked back, saying that the gangs were a problem but a limited one.

Videos of men carrying guns and barging into apartment units spread on social and mainstream media.

Federal officials believe the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, or TDA, is operating in the metro Denver area, although local politicians insist that the gang’s footprint is small.

The prison gang is linked to a diverse portfolio of criminal activities that includes drug trafficking, human trafficking, particularly of immigrant women and girls, extortion, and money laundering.

Victims are often killed by gang members, with their deaths publicized as a way to intimidate others from coming forward, according to government officials.

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat, earlier said gang activity in Aurora has been exaggerated

“Those exaggerating and distorting the Aurora gang issue need to stop. Their misrepresentations are not based on reality,” Crow said on X.