Venezuelan migrant gang members roaming freely in Colorado apartment buildings received help from a migrant housing plan funded by the Biden administration and the city of Denver, a A new damning report sample.
Researchers at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, have linked a wave of drug, gun and child sex crimes to taxpayer-funded immigrant housing programs and nonprofits in Aurora, a Denver suburb.
Americans were shocked when security footage showing Venezuelan migrant gang members carrying firearms around an Aurora housing complex and forcibly entering an apartment went viral on social media last month.
The gangsters are reportedly members of the notorious Tren de Aragua street gang, and have been involved in everything from attempted murder to human trafficking and drug and weapons crimes.
For many, the images showed how record flows of people across the southern border under the Biden administration have driven up crime rates in Democratic-run cities that welcomed them.
Americans were shocked when security footage of migrant gang members carrying firearms in a residential complex and forcing their way into an apartment went viral on social media.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly drawn attention to Venezuelan gangsters in Aurora, even mentioning the once-quiet suburb in his debate with Vice President Kamala on Tuesday night.
Local authorities have played down these concerns, saying immigrants do not control the properties.
Now, the Manhattan Institute report links the presence of law-breaking immigrants in Aurora to federal and local resettlement programs.
“The Biden administration, in partnership with Denver authorities and publicly funded NGOs, provided the funding and logistics to house large numbers of Venezuelan migrants in Aurora, creating a magnet for crime and gangs,” the report said.
“And what’s worse, some of the nonprofits involved appear to be profiting hugely from the situation.”
Researchers say the resettlement plan was funded beginning in 2021 with $3.8 billion in federal funds for Colorado under the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Denver used the money for its Migrant Emergency Response resettlement program and to provide shelter to the growing number of migrants arriving by bus from the chaotic southern border.
The city of 715,000 people then signed multimillion-dollar contracts with two local nonprofits, ViVe Wellness and Papagayo, to house and assist some 8,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans.
The NGOs are headed, respectively, by Yoli Casas and Marielena Suárez, says the report, which was published in the City Journal.
Between 2023 and 2024, ViVe Wellness received $4.8 million and Papagayo received $774,000 from Denver through a migrant support grant funded by ARPA, the report said.
This year, ViVe secured an additional $10.4 million in three contracts, while Papagayo received $2.9 million from a single contract to serve migrants.
Some of this money was awarded as part of the Denver Asylum Seeker Program, which promised six months of rental assistance to nearly 1,000 immigrants.
NGOs used the money to pay landlords and subsidize migrants’ rents.
Yoli Casas, a Venezuelan migrant, runs ViVe Wellness, which has been involved in housing asylum seekers in Aurora’s troubled complexes.
Marielena Suarez runs Papagayo, which used taxpayer money to fill the complexes with Venezuelan immigrants, says Manhattan Institute report
Papagayo worked with CBZ Management, a Brooklyn-based real estate company that manages the three apartment buildings affected by the crime wave: Edge of Lowry, Whispering Pines and Fitzsimons Place, also known as Aspen Grove.
Papagayo directed newly arrived Venezuelan immigrants from Denver to CBZ Management and offered to cover their rent while they settled into their new homes in Aurora apartment complexes.
“It was a booming business,” the researchers said. Within six months, about four-fifths of the apartments were occupied by Venezuelan migrants, a shift that came with gang activity and violent crime, the report said.
Investigators point to a confidential legal report detailing a rise in crime in the buildings, including burglary, assault, extortion, drug use, illegal firearms possession, human trafficking and child sexual abuse.
The Mail has reached out to Denver and the White House for comment and is awaiting a response.
The researchers’ findings echo a report by Colorado’s right-leaning Common Sense Institute, which said the crime rate is expected to double in buildings between 2022 and 2023, even as violations elsewhere in Denver declined.
The surge of immigrants could end up costing the city an additional $340 million, placing new burdens on schools and the health care system, the Common Sense Institute says.
One of the buildings, Aspen Grove, was closed in August and about 300 people were evacuated after the city identified health and safety issues, including rodent infestations, sewage backups, lack of electricity and accumulations of trash.
Authorities had accused the owner, Zev Baumgarten, of failing to maintain the 99-unit property at 1568 Nome St. Baumgarten agreed to sell the building as part of a settlement with Aurora officials.
Aurora police are at the complex and say claims that a gang has taken over the building are false.
On a visit to the apartments where the gunmen were filmed, interim Aurora Police Chief Heather Morris said the gang members had not taken control and were not collecting rent.
Four alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang were arrested in Aurora in connection with an attempted murder in July
CBZ management blamed gangs for the poor condition of the property, claiming that members of the Tren de Aragua have scared management and are forcing residents to pay them rent.
Colorado police, local officials and activists have denied his claims.
Landlord Baumgarten has also been accused of similar violations at Edge of Lowry Apartments at 1258 Dallas St, where viral footage showed armed men breaking into the units.
A third complex, Whispering Pines at 1357 Galena St, has also been affected by gangs, and a law firm hired by management claims Venezuelan gangsters have been running the building since late 2023.
The Tren de Aragua, a criminal group from Venezuela, has had a “stranglehold” on the Whispering Pines Apartments in Aurora since late 2023, the law firm Perkins Coie said in a recent letter to Aurora officials.
Some 320,000 Venezuelans have attempted to cross the southern U.S.-Mexico border since October 2022, more than in the previous nine years combined. Many were fleeing economic collapse in their home country.
Denver was one of several U.S. cities overwhelmed by the flood of migrants, many of whom arrived on buses chartered by Texas to draw attention to the impact of immigration.
In total, Denver officials say they have helped about 42,700 migrants since last year, either by giving them shelter or paying for bus fare to another city.
Initially, the city offered migrants with families six weeks in a hotel.
In May, on track to spend $180 million this year to help new arrivals, officials scaled back their offer to would-be migrants while deepening their investment in people already receiving support.
Denver paid for longer shelter stays for 800 migrants already in hotels and offered them English classes and help applying for asylum and work permits.
But the migrants who have arrived since May have only been staying in a hotel for three days. After that, some have gone to other cities, looking for a place to sleep or wandering around nearby towns like Aurora.