Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 12 February 2019

cluded periods when the
city's crime rates increased
year over year, despite
new fencing and walls.
The Trump campaign re-
leased a video showing El
Paso residents saying the
wall helped reduce crime.
But many in the city have
bristled at the prospect of
becoming a border wall
poster child.
That includes O'Rourke, a
potential 2020 candidate,
who came close to unseat-
ing Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018
and maintains an army of
small-dollar donors and a
large social media follow-
ing. While few Democratic
candidates have focused
on immigration in their
launches, O'Rourke has de-
scribed Trump's calls for the
wall as the "cynical rhetoric
of war, of invasions, of fear."
"While some try to stoke
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with a group of sheriffs from around the country before leaving the White House fear and paranoia, to
in Washington, Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, for a trip to El Paso, Texas. spread lies and a false nar-
Associated Press
rative about the U.S.-Mexi-
co border and to demand
BORDER WALL by federal authorities, but a 2,000-mile wall along it at
Continued from Previous Page lawmakers apparently a time of record safety and
And they made clear that broke through that impasse security, El Paso will come
Trump's long-promised bor- Monday evening. Now together for a march and
der wall is sure to play an they will need the support celebration that highlights
outsized role in the presi- of Trump, who must sign the the truth," he said in a state-
dential race, as both sides legislation. ment ahead of the event.
use it to try to rally their sup- Trump has repeatedly Moments before leaving
porters and highlight their pointed to El Paso to make the White House, Trump
contrasting approaches. his case that a border wall made it clear that O'Rourke
As Trump traveled to the is necessary, claiming that was on his mind.
site of his Monday rally, barriers turned the city from "We have a line that's very
Democratic and Repub- one of the nation's most long already," Trump said
lican negotiators back in dangerous to one of its saf- of his El Paso rally. "I under-
Washington announced est. But that's not true. stand our competitor has
that lawmakers had El Paso had a murder rate got a line, too, but a tiny
reached an agreement in of less than half the nation- little line." At the time, short
principle to fund the gov- al average in 2005, a year lines had formed for both
ernment ahead of a mid- before the most recent ex- events. The El Paso rally is
night Friday deadline to pansion of its border fence. Trump's first since the No-
avoid another shutdown. That's despite being just vember midterm elections
The emerging agree- across the border from Ciu- and comes at a precarious
ment was announced by dad Juarez, Mexico, a city moment for his presidency.
a group of lawmakers, in- plagued by drug violence. Weakened by the longest
cluding Republican Sen. The FBI's Uniform Crime Re- government shutdown in
Richard Shelby and Demo- port shows that El Paso's American history, Trump is
cratic Rep. Nita Lowey, af- annual number of report- also contending with the
ter a closed-door meeting ed violent crimes dropped ongoing investigation into
on Capitol Hill. from nearly 5,000 in 1995 to Russian election meddling
The talks had cratered over around 2,700 in 2016. But and a flurry of investiga-
the weekend because of that corresponded with tions by newly empowered
Democratic demands to similar declines in violent majority Democrats in the
limit immigrant detentions crime nationwide and in- House.q