A United States congresswoman representing El Paso, Texas told President Trump to cancel his plans to visit the city, which was rocked by a mass shooting at a Walmart over the weekend.
“From my perspective, he is not welcome here. He should not come here while we are in mourning,” said Rep. Veronica Escobar on MSNBC Monday morning. “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.”
Twenty-one people were shot and killed, and dozens more were injured in the incident. The suspect reportedly wrote a manifesto in which he explained he carried out the attack to push back an an “Hispanic immigrant invasion” of Texas.
El Paso is on the U.S. border with Mexico. Several of the people the shooter killed there were Mexican nationals.
Trump condemned the shootings and white supremacy on Monday and said he would visit the city in the coming days.
He also urged Democrats and Republicans to come together to achieve meaningful gun reform, though he proposed no plan for getting it passed.
“We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!” Trump tweeted.
Escobar, an immigrant herself, suggested Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has inspired xenophobic attacks like the one in her district.
“Words have consequences,” Escobar said. “He has told the country that we are people to be feared, people to be hated.”
