‘Shift wall money to gun measures’

Memorial for victims

WASHINGTON, Aug 15, (Agencies): Two senior Senate Democrats on Wednesday asked President Donald Trump to withdraw his $5 billion request for border wall funding and use the money on initiatives to combat gun violence in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

In a letter, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Patrick Leahy informed Trump that he does not have enough support in Congress for his wall funding request to be included in the federal budget for fiscal year 2020, which begins on Oct 1.

“Instead, we urge you to support spending funds you have requested for the border wall, on other pressing needs such as proven initiatives that will address the threats of gun violence and white supremacist extremism in America,” wrote Schumer and Leahy, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee that oversees government outlays.

The White House had no immediate commment.

The request, which was expected, surfaced as Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives are trying to pressure Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to call the Senate back early from its August recess and allow votes on universal background check legislation that passed the House in February.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that public pressure should force McConnell to bring the House legislation up for a vote and said her chamber would soon move forward with new gun measures including a ban on high-capacity gun magazines.

The Democratic push on gun control follows mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that killed 31 people and propelled the wide availability of guns in the United States back to the forefront of political debate.

Pelosi

Action

Trump has called for congressional action on guns but has sent mixed messages on the kind of legislation he would sign. He has appeared at times to endorse expanded background checks but has also shifted his focus to mental illness, violent video games and “red flag” incentives for states to deny guns to people deemed a danger to themselves and others.

McConnell has declined to call the Senate back early and instead has instructed the chairs of three Senate committees to work on legislation that can be debated when lawmakers return from their recess on Sept 9.

The House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over gun restrictions, is expected to return from its summer break a week early to work on new legislation.

Meanwhile, leaders from both sides of the US-Mexico border told thousands of people gathered in a baseball stadium in El Paso Wednesday that love will triumph over hatred in the wake of a mass shooting by a man who authorities believe targeted Mexicans at a Walmart store in the Texas border city.

People lined up hours before the memorial and packed the stadium in downtown El Paso that could hold about 8,000.

Nine circles and 22 stars formed by luminarias – traditional lanterns made from paper bags, sand, and LED lights – adorned the field in honor of the nine people killed in the Dayton, Ohio, mass shooting and the 22 El Paso shooting victims.

The ceremony at Southwest University Park officially commemorated those killed in the largely Latino city by a gunman who police say confessed to driving from the Dallas area to stage the attack. Most of the dead had Hispanic last names, and eight were Mexican nationals. Nearly two dozen others were injured.

“Hate will never overcome our love. Hate will never overcome who we are,” El Paso Mayor Dee Margo said.

He praised the bilingual, bi-national community in the border region. “We are successful because of our people. There is nowhere in North America like El Paso-Juárez.”

El Paso is just across the border from the Mexican city of Juarez and some of those shot at Walmart were Mexicans who had crossed to El Paso to shop.

Republican Texas Gov Greg Abbott received a huge applause from the crowd in the predominantly Democratic city when he said that he would “dismantle the purveyors of hate.”

Earlier in the day, Abbott announced that the state would add manpower to gang investigations of white nationalist groups in the wake of the shooting. He also said Texas would create a new domestic terrorism unit to help “root out the extremist ideologies that fuel hatred and violence in our state.”

Reserved

One section of the stadium was reserved for Walmart employees such as Rosa Fernandez, 65, an El Paso native. Fernandez heard the shots but did not see the shooter.

“I remember the shots outside in the parking lot,” she said in a mix of Spanish and English. “Seeing the people scattered dead on the ground.”

Authorities said Wednesday they have finished processing the scene at Walmart for evidence. El Paso police said they are returning control of the property to Walmart.

Walmart spokeswoman LeMia Jenkins said the store remains a “secure location with controlled access.” She said a fence will remain around the store’s perimeter and that Walmart is using contracted security guards to prevent trespassing. The company did not say when the store would reopen.

Patrick Crusius, 21, is charged with capital murder in the 22 deaths. An online rant investigators have attributed to him speaks of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and theories of non-white immigrants replacing whites.

On Wednesday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he wants the United States to extradite Crusius so that he can also be tried in Mexico.

Cynthia Murillo, 27, came to the memorial pay her respects to her boss Leo Campos, who was one of those killed. The 22 names were read aloud and of the crowed held up their glowing phones. She praised the bipartisan, binational delegation.

Murillo said she is still scared and confused by the motivations of the shooter. “It’s trying to wrap your head around how much hate you have to have against a race to do something like that.”

She said that she is avoiding big stores after the shooting. “But I guess we can’t live in fear forever,” she said. El Paso has long been an important city in Mexican American culture and immigration. It served as a port of entry where immigrants from the interior of Mexico had to come to gain entry into the United States before World War II and is sometimes called the “Ellis Island” of the border.