Former Congressman and possible 2020 presidential contender Beto O’Rourke said in an interview Thursday that he would tear down an existing border barrier in El Paso, Texas, if given the chance.
“Absolutely, I’d take the wall down,” O’Rourke, who represented the area as a congressman, said on MSNBC.
The fencing that surrounds El Paso, which is near the Mexican city of Juarez, became a point of contention this week when O’Rourke and President Trump both held rallies in the city.
El Paso is one of the safest cities in the US “not because of walls, but in spite of walls,” O’Rourke said at his rally, which drew more than 10,000 people.
Trump, however, had a different opinion on the crime in El Paso.
“They are full of crap when they say it hasn’t made a big difference,” Trump said at his own campaign rally.
O’Rourke stood by his assertion in his MSNBC interview Thursday.
“Here’s what we know: After the Secure Fence Act, we have built 600 miles of wall and fencing on a 2,000-mile border,” O’Rourke said. “What that has done is not in any demonstrable way made us safer.”
He added that the fencing has forced migrants to take longer journeys into the United States, leading to the deaths of some 4,000 asylum seekers.
“They’re dead, over the last 10 years, as we have walled off their opportunity to legally petition for asylum to cross in urban centers, like El Paso,” he said.