By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
When Danielle Jurinsky returned to civilian life after nine years serving in the Air Force, most of it at Buckley Air Base, and after building multiple businesses employing more than 50 residents, adding to her responsibility may not have been a consideration.
But, that’s just what she did, running for and being elected as a member of City Council in the town where she was raised.
It would almost be unfathomable to consider anyone in Colorado hasn’t heard of the Aurora city councilwoman in the past few months. She’s been at the forefront of discoveries the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Araqua was active in some areas of the town, and leading in the assistance for some of the most affected residents.
In a few days, the nation might also know of Jurinsky. She is slated to be among those invited to speak in advance of Donald J. Trump, during a Make America Great Again rally on Friday, Oct. 11, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, 6700 N. Gaylord Rockies Blvd., in Aurora. Tickets are available at DonaldJTrump.com.
“I am excited to represent my hometown and welcome President Trump to Aurora,” Jurinsky said in a statement to the Rocky Mountain Voice. “I am grateful to see a presidential candidate take the time to come to Aurora.”
She will likely be joined at the rally by the likes of Lauren Boebert, Gabe Evans and John Fabbricatore, all three candidates for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“We are ready and thrilled to have President Trump visit Colorado, as we’ve seen firsthand the horrible effects of the Biden-Harris Administration on our communities,” U.S. Rep. Boebert said in a statement to the Rocky Mountain Voice. “From record costs on groceries and gas to dangerous Venezuelan criminals terrorizing our residents, we are sick of Kamala Harris crushing our state and our country’s future.”
Under Trump, a border wall was being constructed and illegal border crossings were diminished, but they’ve boomed since the election of President Joe Biden. Trump cites the about 43,000 illegal immigrants who have converged on Denver since December 2022, and many of those migrants locating in places like Aurora.
“Local families have been forced to flee their homes as Tren de Aragua members terrorize apartment complexes with guns, theft and rampant drug activity,” the Trump-Vance campaign wrote in a press statement. “Kamala Harris’ open-border policies are turning once-safe communities into nightmares for law-abiding citizens.”
Jurinsky, along with Fabbricatore and other residents of Aurora, utilized Twitter/X to push back on claims their reports of Tren de Aragua activity were “figments,” as Jurinsky has recalled Gov. Jared Polis saying.
Just this past weekend, she noted the manner in which Texas dealt with a similar problem to Aurora’s at the Palatia apartments in San Antonio. A multiple agency approach, including the FBI and the U.S. Border Patrol, responded there to reports of human trafficking, narcotics violations and threats to apartment staff.
“There’s nothing to see here, folks. Very friendly people kicking in doors and holding people at gunpoint,” Jurinsky wrote Oct. 5 on Twitter/X. “It’s becoming more alarming to me that the @AuroraPD and the @AuroraGov can’t clearly state (and tell the truth) about what really happened to the people in these apartment complexes in Aurora. It’s a shame the people of Aurora didn’t get this kind of reaction from the police and were forced to suffer.”
John Fabbricatore, formerly the Regional ICE Director and presently the 6th District U.S. House Republican nominee, joined with Jurinsky this summer, verifying residential reports as they were presented of Tren de Aragua activity in Aurora.
“As we approach President Trump’s visit to Aurora, it’s crucial that we focus on the reality of the situation, instead of getting caught up in political rhetoric,” he said in a statement to the Rocky Mountain Voice. “Local media have the responsibility to report the truth about Venezuelan criminal gangs like Tren de Aragua operating in our community. Arrests have been made and crimes have occurred, yet some outlets choose to downplay these incidents so that they can strike out at President Trump instead. Let’s not allow political bias to overshadow the facts that affect the safety and well-being of our neighborhoods.”
Both Fabbricatore and Jurinsky participated in a roundtable earlier this summer, hosted by Boebert, in which invited media were introduced to a resident moved from an apartment taken over by Tren de Aragua. City management and police leadership were noticeably absent from the meeting in City Hall. Neither the Aurora Police Department or the City of Aurora has commented on their Twitter accounts about the rally taking place Friday.
“We need President Trump back in office and his rally in Aurora on Friday will highlight everything he plans to do to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!,” Boebert said.
She is campaigning in a plus-13 Republican district in Northern and Eastern Colorado which has been described as “MAGA Country”, and is likely to win the 4th District in the landslide manner she did in the Republican primary. Trump’s appearance, though, might be meaningful to Gabe Evans, who is locked in a dead heat with Democrat U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo.
“I’m trying to take care of my country, trying to take care of my state, trying to take care of my community and make sure that folks can live the American Dream,” Evans wrote in a Twitter/X post as reasons he’s running for office.
In a poll conducted Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 by The Hill/Emerson, Caraveo and Evans were found to be deadlocked. Each candidate in the poll had 44% support with 12% undecided. The poll found Evans to have a 6% lead in favorability. Cook Political Report also has the district rated as “even”.
During MAGA rallies, Trump often brings candidates on stage to bolter their campaigns, although it is unclear if that will happen with Evans, his campaign told the Rocky Mountain Voice in an email.
“My question has always been, ‘What’s the problem and how do we work together to actually solve this problem?’ It’s what I did as a police officer, it’s what I did at the state capitol, and it’s what I’ll continue to do in Congress,” Evans says.