On Wednesday, El Paso, Texas, mayor Dee Margo joined Hardball With Chris Matthews to refute President Trump’s claim during the State of the Union address on Tuesday that El Paso was one of the most dangerous cities in the country until a barrier was built on its southern border.
According to Margo, along with FBI statistics, El Paso has been one of the safest large cities in America for years.
“We are considered the safest city with a population greater than 500,000,” Margo said. “I talked to our police chief, through his staff, today, and found out in 2008, we were like second. In 2009, after the fence was built, we were still second. But we’ve progressed to be the number one safest city in the nation.”
Margo was quick to send out a tweet claiming Trump’s narrative on El Paso was false, as did Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who went so far as to call Trump a liar.
Margo went on to say in the interview that the fence along El Paso’s southern border is only part of the process for security. He claimed that building a fence from El Paso to Brownsville, Texas, isn’t realistic, citing the terrain and the fact that much of the land is privately owned.
And while politicians in Washington D.C. continue to debate over a wall, Margo is looking elsewhere for solutions to border security.
“What I’d like to hear, rather than elected officials telling me, I’d rather hear Homeland Security telling me what they recommend for control of our border,” Margo said.
“To my knowledge, I’ve never heard anything come out of Homeland Security that dictate the complete program.”
Trump plans to visit El Paso for a rally next week, a visit during which Margo hopes he gets a chance to show Trump the truth about his city.
“The fact that he’s coming out, I’m very pleased,” Margo said, “and I hope to have some time to visit with him and show him how our border functions.”
Comments