US elections: Trump demonises migrants, calls US an ‘occupied’ nation

As the US presidential campaign enters into the final stretch before the November 5 elections, the Republican candidate Donald Trump has increased his rhetoric about the “dangers” caused by migrants in the country.

Speaking at a campaign event in Aurora, Colorado on Friday (October 11), he spoke for more than an hour focusing mostly on immigration and creating a false picture of a nation being “occupied” by hordes of criminal foreigners. Trump made wild accusations about migrants and did his best to create fear among his supporters who are mostly white, working-class citizens.

He exaggerated local tensions and gave false data about US immigration statistics and policy.

‘Occupied America’

“America is known, throughout the world, as ‘Occupied America’. They call it ‘occupied’. We’re being occupied by a criminal force,” he told the crowd.

“But to everyone here in Colorado and all across our nation, I make this pledge and vow to you: November 5, 2024 will be Liberation Day in America,” he said, with posters of suspected foreign criminals displayed on the stage behind him.

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Trump called the Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris a “criminal”, and made a false accusation that Venezuelan gangs had been given permission to shoot at the police. He referred to an “enemy within”, and called them “the scum we have to deal with that hate our country”.

Operation Aurora

“If Harris got four years in office, you would have 200 million people come in. The country would be over,” said the former president.

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Trump went a step further and promised to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against migrant gangs. This law allows the federal government to apprehend and deport foreigners belonging to a country that is at war with the US. He called the mass deportation drive he intended to carry out if elected President as “Operation Aurora”.

Aurora’s mayor counters Trump’s claims

A viral video went around in Aurora, Colorado that showed armed Latinos roughing up the people in an apartment building. The right-wing media kept playing the video on a loop, creating a false narrative about Latin American migrants terrorising the locals and reinforcing Trump’s election message about America being overrun by what he calls “animals” and “savages”.

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The Republican mayor of Aurora, Mike Coffman, however, called Trump’s claims “grossly exaggerated”, and offered to give him a tour of Aurora. The mayor called Aurora “a safe city – not a city overrun by Venezuelan gangs”.