Days after back-to-back mass shooting, President Donald Trump addressed the nation and denounced white supremacy. But even as he condemned racism, Trump tried to vilify immigrants. On the same day that he again showing his lack of sympathy for immigrants and Latinos, Rep. Veronica Escobar told the president that he is not welcome in El Paso, her hometown.
On Saturday, a gunman opened fire at a Walmart and killed 22. Before the Before the shooting, he published a manifesto, which stated that there was a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Many have pointed out that the shooter’s language echoed much of what Trump has said about immigrants at the border.
“Words have consequences,” Escobar said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “He has told the country that we are people to be feared, people to be hated. I hope that [Trump] has the self-awareness to understand that we are in pain, and we are mourning, and we are doing the very best in our typical, graceful, El Paso way to be resilient. And so I would ask his staff and his team to consider the fact that his words and his actions have played a role in this.”
From the very beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has maligned immigrants, and throughout the years, he has not softened his positions. Instead, he’s chosen to compare immigrants to animals. In May, during one of his rallies in Florida, Trump asked, “How do you stop these people? You can’t, there’s –,” Trump said, before he cut himself off. That’s when a rally goer said, “Shoot them.”
Trump didn’t chastise the commenter; he laughed and then made a joke. “That’s only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement,” he said.
It’s this disregard for immigrants that has been scrutinized after the shooting.
“From my perspective, he is not welcome here,” Escobar said. “He should not come here while we are in mourning. I would encourage the president’s staff members to have him do a little self-reflection. I would encourage them to show him his own words and his actions at the rallies.”