LATIMES.COM WSCE TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019A

THE NATION

EL PASO — Watching
President Trump step up to
a White House podium Mon-
day to assert that “hate has
no place in America,” many
people in this Texas border
city were dumbfounded.
“We were safe until he
started talking,” John
Smith-Davis, 47, a retired
Army veteran, said as he
mourned with his friends at
a memorial near the Wal-
mart where a gunman
opened fire Saturday. “He
made us a target with his
hateful rhetoric.”
Veronica Sanchez, a 23-
year-old dental assistant,
put it more succinctly: “He
has said enough.”
El Paso, whose 680,
people are mostly Latino
and mostly Democrats, has
long viewed Trump warily —
and his most forceful state-
ment since the massacre
that has now claimed 22 lives
there did little to change
that.
“These barbaric slaugh-
ters are an assault upon our
communities, an attack
against our nation and a
crime against all of human-
ity,” Trump said in a speech
Monday about the killings
here and another mass
shooting a day later in Day-
ton, Ohio. “In one voice, our
nation must condemn rac-
ism, bigotry and white su-
premacy.”
That was little comfort to
many El Paso residents, who
focused instead on the ways
that Trump has stoked the
racism and xenophobia that
appear to have motivated
the killer and his decision to
target Mexican immigrants.

El Paso Mayor Dee

Margo said Monday that

Trump was planning to visit

the city on Wednesday,

though by late in the day the

White House had not offi-

cially confirmed that.

Many here said he would

not be received warmly.

“From my perspective, he

is not welcome here,” Demo-

cratic U.S. Rep. Veronica

Escobar, whose district in-

cludes a wide swath of the

city, said in an interview on

MSNBC. “Words have con-

sequences. The president

has made my community

and my people the enemy.

He has told the country that

we are people to be feared,

people to be hated.”

A string of officials in El

Paso and across the nation

have condemned Trump for

his steady flow of racist rhet-

oric, including his repeated

warnings about an immi-

grant “invasion”— the same

term used in a manifesto

posted to 8chan believed to

be written by the shooter.

“We have a president

right now who traffics in this

hatred, who incites this vi-

olence, who calls Mexican

immigrants rapists and

criminals, calls asylum seek-

ers animals and an infesta-

tion,” Beto O’Rourke, the

Democratic presidential

candidate who represented

El Paso in Congress, said

Sunday at a vigil.

O’Rourke also took aim

at a suggestion Trump

tweeted early Monday that

Republicans and Demo-

crats might now work to-

gether to enact stronger

background checks for gun

buyers, “perhaps marrying

this legislation with desper-

ately needed immigration

reform.”

“Only a racist, driven by

fear, could witness what

took place this weekend —

and instead of standing up

to hatred, side with a mass

murderer’s call to make our

country more white,”

O’Rourke wrote on Twitter.

“We are so much better than

this president.”

El Paso is an island of

Democrats in a west Texas

sea of Republicans. Hillary

Clinton carried El Paso

County in 2016 with 69% of

the vote and Beto O’Rourke

won with 86% for his con-

gressional seat.

Some Republicans here

said they appreciated

Trump’s remarks and said it

was too soon for the inevi-

table political arguments.

“Right now, I want to

make sure I can show sup-

port by going to vigils and

my wife can go to someone’s

rosary and support those

who lost loved ones,” said 72-

year-old Bob Pena. “We have

people yet to be put into the

ground and people are look-

ing to make political points

out of it. Arguments can —

and will — be made on both

sides.”

Home to a University of

Texas campus and the

Army’s Ft. Bliss, El Paso sits

just across the Mexican bor-

der from the far larger Ciu-

dad Juarez, which has a

population of 1.3 million.

As more Central Ameri-

can asylum seekers have ar-

rived at the border in recent

years, El Paso has become a

major crossing point for im-

migrants entering the coun-

try illegally, second only to

Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

The Trump administra-

tion debuted its “zero toler-

ance” family separation pol-

icy in El Paso. More recently,

the “Remain in Mexico” pro-

gram, which requires asy-

lum seekers to remain south

of the border while their

cases proceed in U.S. immi-

gration court, was expanded

from California to El Paso.

Claudia Ordaz Perez, an

El Paso city councilwoman,

said in an interview that she

was trying not to politicize

the tragedy. But it was diffi-

cult, she said, not to sepa-

rate the massacre from the

president’s escalating rheto-

ric on immigration and race.

“Of course, the rhetoric of

hate from the shooter

matches what we’re hearing

on a national level and the

president’s comments on

this are just confusing,” she

said.

Back at the Walmart on

Monday, mourners deliv-

ered flowers, candles and

signs to honor the dead.

Smith-Davis felt angry.

Angry at the shooter. Angry

at the gun lobby. Angry at

Trump. He said Trump’s

charge during his presi-

dential campaign that Mexi-

cans were drug dealers and

rapists hurt the city, given

that hundreds of thousands

cross the bridges every day

from Juarez to El Paso to

work.

“They’re just trying to

make a living,” he said.

Sanchez, the dental as-

sistant, who lives just across

the border from El Paso in

New Mexico, was especially

upset by Trump’s talk of

pairing gun and immigra-

tion legislation.

The killer, she pointed

out, “wasn’t somebody who

crossed the border. This is

homegrown, somebody who

came from the United

States.”

The night before the

massacre, Sanchez visited

the Walmart for back-to-

school shopping with her

family. They had planned to

return the next morning but

saw reports of the attack

and stayed home. She later

read the shooter’s supposed

manifesto railing against

Latinos and immigrants like

her parents, who crossed il-

legally from Mexico.

Back when Trump vis-

ited El Paso in February,

Sanchez attended a compet-

ing rally for O’Rourke. She

has Latino relatives in the

area who voted for Trump,

but she struggles now, after

the mass shooting, to under-

stand how they could re-

main committed to him.

Jaime Abeytia, who has

lived in El Paso for 22 years,

said that he did not imagine

any Trump visit would be

warmly received.

“His hypocrisy on hate is

shockingly boundless,” he

said.

“Unless he’s coming with

some solid policy changes

that directly address the

availability of high-capacity

weapons — and not use the

opportunity to propose

more draconian immigra-

tion policy, I’m not inter-

ested in a Trump visit.”

Montero reported from

El Paso and Jarvie from

Atlanta. Times staff writer

Molly Hennessy-Fiske in

Houston contributed

to this report.

‘We were safe until he started talking’

El Paso residents

blame the president’s

‘hateful rhetoric’ for

inspiring the shooting.

By David Montero
and Jenny Jarvie

CATHE HILLwipes away tears during a vigil for victims of Saturday’s mass

shooting in El Paso. Many residents say President Trump should not visit the city.

John LocherAssociated Press

Call Andrew Morris for your free in-home appraisal

THIRD-GENERATION FAMILY OWNED

• Sell with immediate payment, or by auction •

STEWART AUCTIONS & ANTIQUES

STEWARTAUCTIONSISGIVINGFREEAPPRAISALSTO

PEOPLE INTERESTED IN SELLING ART, JEWELRY OR

OTHER ITEMS OF VALUE.

AUGUST 6-

TIME TO SELL?

ART&JEWELRY

BEVERLY HILLS • 310-275-

ORANGE COUNTY • 949-497-

10102EmpyreanWay,CenturyCity,CA90067•[email protected]

LAA7607080-