Beto O’Rourke argued President Trump’s proposed border wall would hurt people more than it would help them, as he and Trump held dueling rallies in El Paso Monday night.
“We know that walls do not save lives, walls end lives,” said O’Rourke, a possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.
O’Rourke argued late last year that the border wall ends up hurting illegal immigrants because it drives them further out into more treacherous, remote areas of the border to cross into the U.S.
The former Texas congressman who represented El Paso said the city was one of the safest cities in the U.S. “not because of walls, but in spite of walls,” because its residents treat each other with respect and dignity.
“The U.S. cities of the U.S.-Mexico border are far safer than the U.S. cities deeper in the interior of the United States of America,” he said.
The rally, aimed at rejecting Trump’s ongoing demands for a wall along the southern border, is sure to fuel speculation about O’Rourke’s presidential ambitions. O’Rourke has not yet reached a decision on whether he’ll jump into the 2020 race.
Trump joked at his own rally less than a mile away that his larger crowd size “may be the end of [O’Rourke’s] presidential bid.”
