Trump takes border campaign to El Paso

President Donald Trump takes his politically explosive push for walling off the Mexican border to the frontier city of El Paso yesterday, four days before a deadline for Congress to meet his demands. According to Trump, illegal immigrants pose a national security risk to the United States and can only be stopped by dramatic extensions of current barriers.

Trump chose El Paso as a historic crossing point where, he says, walls have eradicated an out-of-control influx of criminals from Mexico and made the city a model for what could happen elsewhere on the border. But there’ll be a counter-message a short distance from where Trump speaks when rising Democratic star Beto O’Rourke -- a possible challenger to Trump in 2020 -- holds his own rally.

A former congressman who excited grassroots Democrats last November with an againstthe-odds near upset of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, O’Rourke is from El Paso. “While some try to stoke fear and paranoia, to spread lies and a false narrative about the US-Mexico border and to demand a 2,000 mile wall along it at a time of record safety and security, El Paso will come together for a march and celebration that highlights the truth,” O’Rourke’s office said.