Federal law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale immigration raid across Denver and Aurora on Wednesday, with masked agents deploying flashing smoke grenades, zip-tying detainees and taking an unconfirmed number of people into custody.

The operation began before dawn and lasted through much of the day, with armed federal agents staging around the metro area as teams both went door-to-door at targeted apartment complexes and quickly hit individual addresses.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Denver office said on social media that it was working with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service to search for more than 100 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

But officials did not say how many of those gang members they located. And ICE officials in Denver did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Denver Post about how many people were taken into custody or where they were being processed or detained.

The raids, part of an ongoing pledge by President Donald Trump to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, drew widespread condemnation from Colorado immigrant rights groups and state Democratic lawmakers.

“I don’t think this is the way for a nuclear-armed superpower to be operating in the world in 2025,” said Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, adding that he’d seen pictures of armored vehicles in the streets and federal agents on rooftops in Aurora.

During his campaign, Trump dubbed his promised nationwide mission “Operation Aurora,” falsely claiming the city had been overrun by Venezuelan gang members.

“We’re here today to conduct an at-large enforcement operation looking for Tren de Aragua, the gang members here from Venezuela,” an unnamed ICE spokesperson said in a video the agency shared on social media Wednesday morning.

“Unfortunately,” he added, “we have to come to the communities because we don’t get the cooperation we need from the jails. It would be so much easier and so much safer for our officers and agents if we could take these people into custody from a safe environment, but if we have to come out into the community to do this, that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Since 2019, Colorado lawmakers have passed laws that block ICE from arresting people at certain locations, such as courthouses, and bar county jails from holding inmates solely at the request of the federal immigration agency. Some Colorado sheriff’s offices do contact ICE ahead of releasing inmates wanted for deportation, though others shy away from the practice.

Rep. Gabe Evans, the newly elected Republican representing Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, cited ICE’s comments Wednesday in calling on Gov. Jared Polis to change state laws that prevent local police from working with federal immigration enforcers.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, in a statement Wednesday, said the city had confirmed that there had not been any ICE activity at schools, hospitals or churches. Denver police and city authorities have not participated in the raids, he said.

A spokesman for Aurora said neither the city nor its police department were involved in Wednesday’s federal raids. “We focus on enforcing state and local law,” Ryan Luby said.

‘People are afraid to leave. They’re afraid to be outside’

Agents were reported at the Edge of Lowry, Whispering Pines and Cedar Run apartment complexes early Wednesday morning, among other locations throughout the day.

In Aurora, the Edge of Lowry entered the international spotlight last year after a video of six armed men forcing their way into an apartment went viral.

In December, a Tren de Aragua gang-related home invasion and violent kidnapping at the apartment complex led to the arrest of 16 people on immigration violations and other charges. Aurora officials said two apartment residents were taken against their will to a vacant unit and were bound, pistol-whipped, threatened and tortured for hours.

Authorities arrived at the Edge of Lowry, at 1218 Dallas St., at about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and were banging on apartment doors trying to get people to open them to talk, said Yamid Rey, a resident, in Spanish. He said he saw many ICE officers, and they closed down the street.

Rey said that only his family left the building. Nobody else did. Agents appeared to mark doors where nobody answered with tape, he said.

“People are afraid to leave. They’re afraid to be outside,” Rey said.

The complex has many residents who are recent immigrants. Often, he said, they have visas or other authorization allowing them to work. He said he wasn’t sure if any have criminal records.

“But they’re afraid to be taken away by immigration, so they’re not opening their doors,” Rey said.

Jannet Valenzuela, the stepdaughter of a man who was swept up in the raids, stood near the Whispering Pines apartments, located a few blocks from the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, at East 13th Avenue and Helena Street, at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

She said she received a call around 6:30 a.m. from her mom, who heard from her stepfather that immigration officials had arrived.

“He was scared, so he hid on the roof,” Valenzuela said. She saw several men up on the roof before they were taken into custody. A video shared with The Post by a witness showed five people standing on the roof at one point while authorities were in the parking lot below.

In Denver, a section of a commercial parking lot at South Colorado Boulevard and East Mexico Avenue hosted a police special reserve team vehicle, two white unmarked buses, and a gaggle of law enforcement officers.

A group of men clad in camouflage uniforms with Homeland Security Investigations-El Paso patches on their arms identified themselves to The Post as Texans, but they directed all further questions to the ICE media team.

Lamine Kane, an organizer at the Colorado People’s Alliance, stood in the parking lot at 11 a.m. and assessed the situation he saw that morning.

‘Instilling fear in our communities’

The news of immigration raids Wednesday morning broadly seemed to take many — even elected officials and lawyers — by surprise. Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky said she wasn’t aware of any raids as of around 8:20 a.m. Ashley Cuber, an immigration attorney, also hadn’t heard word until The Post reached out.

Representatives of organizations supporting immigrants in Colorado and Democratic state legislators were quick to speak out.

“We as a Latino service provider categorically condemn these raids that are intended to sow fear, division, pain and suffering among our communities,” said Rudy Gonzales, president and CEO of Denver’s Servicios de la Raza.

Andrea Loya, executive director of Casa de Paz, said Wednesday’s immigration enforcement was “instilling fear in our communities.”

“What I know from people on the ground is that there appear to be no warrants and again another instance of collaboration with agencies,” she said. “This isn’t making anyone safer.”

Colorado Senate President James Coleman, a Denver Democrat, said the party’s caucus has been educating its members about what resources are available to their communities and how they might help local officials.

“I am horrified to see this approach,” said House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat. “Our immigrant community is critical, not just to the health of thriving communities but to our workforce in this state. I am deeply worried about families being torn apart.”

A group of state senators — most of them from Denver and Aurora — condemned the raids from the Senate floor Wednesday morning. Two lawmakers, Sens. Iman Jodeh and Julie Gonzales, both Democrats, spoke in Arabic and Spanish, respectively, to give advice and encouragement to community members.

Polis, who said last month that he supported ICE expanding its presence in Colorado in targeted ways, said through a spokeswoman Wednesday that he’s asked for an update from federal authorities. He supports the arrest of “dangerous criminals,” the statement said, but his office expressed concern about how little information had been released.

“The governor asks the federal government to be more transparent about the enforcement actions they are taking in Colorado as fear continues to grow in our community, including more information on detention and deportation, what happens to those with legal status, children and American citizens, as well as the overall cost of these operations,” spokeswoman Shelby Wieman wrote to The Post.

Denver Post staff writers Nick Coltrain, Elizabeth Hernandez, Seth Klamann, Lauren Penington and Jessica Seaman contributed to this report.