In 2023 I visited what Border Patrol calls the Del Rio sector of the U.S.–Mexico border. What I found was a population under siege, overstretched police, and an American region under de facto control of Mexican cartels. I wrote that, “with untold millions already successfully trafficked into the United States, it is a matter of time before the hell I've seen is brought to all of God’s country.” Recent events, each thousands of kilometers from the southwest border, show that chaos previously limited to the border is spreading across the mainland United States. 

Last week’s headline reporting that a Venezuelan gang had taken over and terrorized an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, stunned observers and pierced through the “boiling frog” syndrome that often prevents U.S. media from accurately conveying the severity of the border crisis. The gang, Tren de Aragua, forcibly seized Aurora’s Aspen Grove Apartments from its landlords and began patrolling the migrant-packed complex with high-powered weaponry, including AR-15s and AK-47s. The brazen nature of the takeover, common in Latin America but unprecedented in the United States, alarmed local citizens. One Aurora resident’s comments to Fox News encapsulate the situation: “This is organized. They patrol the property with guns visibly, like they're not trying to hide them. There's no repercussion. These are ghosts.”

Citizens, alongside Mayor Mike Coffman, voiced their concerns about the situation. Coffman announced that the city would work to shut down the complex, labeling it a public nuisance and citing numerous code violations. He was supported by Aurora Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, who took to Facebook with a blunt message: “And I repeat… A GANG HAS TAKEN OVER entire apartment complexes in Aurora.” The city also issued a statement acknowledging the gang’s presence: “Yes, we are concerned about a small Tren de Aragua (TdA) presence in Aurora, and we are taking it seriously. We have responded. We have made arrests and will continue to do so.”

At first glance, this appears to demonstrate American institutional strength, with citizens, city leaders, and law enforcement mobilizing together to combat the kind of organized terrorism that plagues Latin America. Yet a closer examination reveals that institutional infighting and paralysis already undermined the U.S. response to Tren de Aragua before the incident exploded into the national consciousness. 

Aurora’s interim police chief, Heather Morris, recently denied there is a gang problem in the town, contradicting video evidence and coordinated city statements by declaring, “Gang members have not taken over.” While Morris assured the community that the police are taking the threat seriously, she seemed more focused on deflecting blame for her department’s failure to prevent the incident. Frustrated citizens, who have voiced their criticisms of Morris and the Aurora Police Department (APD) in the national media, might explain the seemingly delusional response to the gang's apartment takeover.

The Aurora resident Cindy Romero, speaking with CBS, expressed frustration with the a pattern of police inaction: “The police would call me and say they weren't coming unless it was a severe crime.”

Aurora is a suburb of Denver, a notable sanctuary city and liberal stronghold. These cities have experienced instability in their law enforcement agencies since the George Floyd riots and have been among the most welcoming American cities for criminal traffickers and their victims. Morris, a DEI hire if there ever was one, became Aurora’s fifth chief in five years this June. Given this context, it’s not surprising that the Denver metro area would be vulnerable to the emergence of Latin American–style gangsterism, yet it remains shocking to witness nonetheless. 

The stark reality unfolding in Aurora may soon spread across the United States. Major American cities, especially those embracing the “sanctuary city” label, have hollowed out their police forces and elected soft-on-crime district attorneys. Just as the most well-funded, well-organized, and well-armed criminal syndicates in the hemisphere's history descend upon them, these cities are slashing enforcement capabilities. Liberals on both sides of the border talk about demilitarizing the police, but there’s a reason AMLO’s forces still wear kevlar helmets and carry assault rifles. 

If the cowardice of Morris and the APD is any indication of what’s to come, we may soon be forced to militarize our cartel response, just as Mexico has been forced to do. Like many quaint Mexican police departments before them, a host of American police departments are simply unequipped or unwilling to protect citizens from the consequences of open-borders. As I wrote in my description of the Del Rio sector of Texas, paralysis is likely to grip law enforcement agencies as narco-terror infrastructure and manpower begin to reach critical mass in the United States. There’s very little these agencies can reasonably do to stop coordinated cartel operations given the increasing scale and robust civil liberty protections afforded to narco-terrorists in the U.S.

Aurora’s experience with a rogue Venezuelan gang is not the only evidence of increasing cartel confidence in the United States. A Montana tribal leader was forced to cancel his plans to testify in front of Congress in April, citing death threats from Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel. I’m not sure what it will take for the Congress to act to secure the border, but evidently successful terrorist activity that threatens to undermine their own legitimacy was not enough to light a fire under them. Our potential next vice president’s state, Minnesota, has developed into a distribution network for the New Generation Cartel, a cartel that is better described as a paramilitary force than a gang.

Even New England, which votes for diversity it does not practice, has begun to suffer the consequences of their limousine-liberal attitudes. A cartel, housing trafficked children and 220 pounds of hard drugs, was busted dramatically in Massachusetts in late 2023. Perhaps Yankee bed-and-breakfasts being taken over by hardened Latin American gang members will wake New Englanders up to the plight of their fellow countrymen in the southwest, but I doubt it. The 2022 Martha’s Vineyard airlift was evidence enough that this region marinates in self-righteousness and indifference to suffering. At this stage, I am still hesitant to assert that Latin American-style cartel violence is going to become a feature of American life, but the ingredients that could lead to widespread instability are increasingly being put on the table. Catastrophically low American confidence in institutions, anti-police attitudes, and decades of open borders haven’t fully baked the cake, but they have certainly created a dangerous mix. As American attitudes and political trends increasingly mirror those of Latin America, the type of warfare seen there becomes a more likely consequence. While there is still time to reverse this erosion of confidence, decades of cowardice and inaction provide little evidence that the U.S. is capable of meeting the moment. American leadership still has time to close Pandora's box, but the clock is ticking as communities across the nation brace for a future akin to Aurora’s.