President Donald Trump will be visiting the southern border city of El Paso, Texas on Monday as part of his push to get a wall built along the border that he says is the only solution to curb illegal crossings into the United States through Mexico.
But it looks like some of his rhetoric may backfire on him as we hear from elected officials in the area, both Democrats and Republicans alike, who paint a much different picture than the lawless wasteland that Trump tries to depict in his many speeches as the source of all American agony — drugs, human trafficking, crime, and disease all come from the heart of Mexico, if Trump’s campaign-style proclamations are to be believed.
From corner to corner of Texas’ border with Mexico, lawmakers are countering Trump’s horror stories with the realities of living in and providing order for border towns like theirs. In the first border visit Trump made to McAllen, near the Gulf of Mexico, he sounded the same drumbeat — to the dismay of Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, whose district includes McAllen. Now that Trump is visiting El Paso, at the westernmost point of Texas, Gonzalez is speaking up about just how safe these communities actually are.
Appearing on MSNBC, Gonzalez told host Alex Witt,
Well, the reality is McAllen is one of the safest cities in America. In fact, we’re the seventh safest city in America. We had zero murders in the year of 2018. El Paso, where he’s visiting is the safest large city in the country.”
Even the Mayor of El Paso — a Republican — has joined Gonzalez in calling out Trump’s dangerous rhetoric, sending out a tweet that said law enforcement, not a barrier, makes the difference in securing the border:
El Paso was NEVER one of the MOST dangerous cities in the US. We‘ve had a fence for 10 years and it has impacted illegal immigration and curbed criminal activity. It is NOT the sole deterrent. Law enforcement in our community continues to keep us safe #SOTU
— Mayor Dee Margo (@mayor_margo) February 6, 2019
That was in response to Trump’s claims that El Paso was, in fact, one of the most dangerous cities in the US.
Gonzalez took it a step further, however, and pointed out that his own city is “safer than any city the President has ever lived in.”
Politicians of every stripe need to continue to call out Trump’s lies about the nonexistent “crisis” at our southern border. After all, no one could possibly know better than those whose job it is to protect the areas.
Watch the exchange here:
Featured image via screen capture
