"Residents in a Denver suburb say their apartment building was overtaken by the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua," Dr. Phil said. "TdA has been targeting cities like New York, Chicago and, yes, even Dallas," where the show is filmed.
The episode is titled "Armed & Dangerous: Colorado Town Overrun by a Criminal Gang?" and was filmed on September 18 before airing two weeks later. Dr. Phil spent most of the episode talking to Aurora resident Cindy Romero, whose door camera footage from August 18 captured six armed men walking through the halls of an apartment building. The video went viral later that month and spurred national headlines of a takeover of the building and city by Venezuelan gangs.
"Imagine looking at your security camera footage and seeing this: men with machine guns outside your door, walking the hallways or trying to break into your home," Dr. Phil said. "This footage has become a new focal point in our immigration debate."
The claim of Aurora being taken over by Venezuelan gangs was repeated by President Donald Trump during the September 10 presidential debates, where he said "They're going in violently." Trump later said during a rally in New York that he would visit Aurora.
In the episode, Romero walked viewers through her interpretation of the now-famous footage, which was taken at the Edge of Lowry apartments in Aurora, where she lived for four years. She says that the six men were looking for the resident of the unit across from hers, but they later found him in the parking lot, where they shot and killed him.
During the episode, Dr. Phil showed photos from Romero of large bullet holes in the side of her car from the crossfire of the shoot-out while she described the incident.
"We heard yelling outside, and we heard someone say 'shut your mouth' in Spanish," Romero said. "Then we heard gunfire. After we found bullet holes in my vehicle, in my husband's vehicle, then [APD] followed a trail of blood. ...It turns out the guy they shot is the guy who used to live diagonally from me."
Aurora police have since identified the murdered man as 25-year-old Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo. Police have also identified all six of the suspects as Venezuelan immigrants, and have arrested one of them. Still, APD officials have maintained that they haven't discovered evidence linking any of them to a Venezuelan gang.
Dr. Phil did mention that, unlike other gangs, TdA members don't use tattoos to identify themselves, but he credited them with doing this on purpose to keep a low profile.
"My law enforcement contacts tell me they're getting pretty smart, TdA," Dr. Phil said. "They're telling their members, 'Don't get tatted up.'"
Aurora resident Cindy Romero used to live at the Edge of Lowry and recorded the now-famous video of six Venezuelan men walking through the halls of her former apartment building with guns.
Screenshot/Merit Street Media
"Tren de Aragua is absolutely the gang issue in Aurora," Jurinsky said. "They beat up some of the staff, they held some of the staff at gun point, told them they will not return to work. That is how they started to take over these complexes. Therefore [CBZ] abandoned their properties."
Dr. Phil acknowledged that not everyone in Aurora believes the city has a gang problem. He showed footage of former interim Police Chief Heather Morris saying "gang members have not taken over this complex" and from a September 3 press conference by tenants of the Edge saying the problem is the landlord, CBZ Management.
"But many residents and the apartment's owner have said that TdA took possession of the building, shook down residents for rent money and chased many residents and employees out of their homes," Dr. Phil said.
Residents of the Edge who talked to Westword have said they were never shaken down for rent and that no one ever came by their apartments to threaten them if they don't pay rent. CBZ Management started claiming that TdA took over an apartment complex at 1568 Nome Street shortly before Aurora closed the property down for code violations.
Dr. Phil also interviewed Republican congressional candidate John Fabbricatore, the former agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who is challenging U.S. Representative Jason Crow for Colorado's sixth congressional seat.
"When we have police departments that are having trouble hiring like in Aurora, Colorado, those police officers are now not just dealing with citizen crime," Fabbricatore says. "Now they've got to deal with this crime that's brought into the United States by allowing the border to be so porous.
Although Dr. Phil didn't endorse any candidates during the show, he explained that Aurora was at the center of an immigration debate brewing ahead of the November elections. The episode included current and former Border Patrol agents criticizing President Joe Biden for letting TdA into the country through an influx of Venezuelan immigration during the past few years.
Fabbricatore warned that the issue will get worse with time because TdA is in cities across America.
"Aurora is just the teapot. Chicago is the teapot. New York is the teapot. The whistle is going off," he said. "Every city in America needs to be cognizant of what's going on. So many people have been allowed through this border, we shouldn't just be worried about TdA."
At a September 20 press conference, Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain, who was sworn in last month, told reporters the problem isn't that bad.
"We are not by any means taken over by Venezuelan gangs, TdA or any other gangs," Chamberlain said. "Aurora remains a safe and a strong community."
Dr. Phil Primetime airs on Merit Street Media, an online streaming and live TV service. Dr. Phil had a daytime talk show for twenty years before he canceled it last year and moved his show to an evening program on Merit Street, a production company he founded. The Aurora episode marks the show's 100th episode since beginning in April.
Denver has welcomed more than 43,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, since December 2022, with most of them bussed up from El Paso. While Denver is a sanctuary city and Colorado a sanctuary state, the Aurora City Council voted in March to reaffirm its "non-sanctuary city status," according to a resolution that Jurinsky helped pass to avoid city tax dollars supporting recently arrived migrants.
Dr. Phil lived in Denver when he was in elementary and junior high school, according to a podcast interview. He said during his show on Monday that while he hopes to keep attention on the Venezuelan gangs in Aurora, he doesn't want to make Denver or its suburbs look bad.
"I lived in Denver growing up at one time. I've been to Aurora," Dr. Phil said. "It's a beautiful city. Over 400,000 people live there, and this is one pocket of the city. I would hate for the entire city to be besmirched by this."
