Viet Nam News TEL PASO — President Donald Trump takes his politically explosive push for walling off the Mexican border to the frontier city of El Paso on Monday, four days before a deadline for Congress to meet his demands. Trump’s campaign-style rally in El Paso will give the president the kind of populist platform he will seek to build on ahead of his 2020 reelection bid. “Will be heading to El Paso very soon. Big speech on Border Security and much else tonight. Tremendous crowd! See you later!” he tweeted. 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. It’s an argument he backs up with lurid warnings about rapists and people traffickers extending far into the American heartland — a message that critics describe as xenophobic and based on heavily manipulated data. 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 against-the-odds near upset of Republican Senator Ted Cruz, O’Rourke is from El Paso. And his message will provide a stark contrast to that of the president. “Tonight, we will meet lies and hate with the truth and… [Read full story]
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