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Former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke said Thursday that he
would "absolutely" support tearing down existing barriers along
the southern border with Mexico, in a full-throated embrace of
open-borders rhetoric that has left conservatives wondering
where other potential 2020 Democratic White House hopefuls stand
on the issue.

O'Rourke's comments came as the House and Senate passed a
compromise spending bill that would partially fund President
Trump's proposed border wall, to the tune of $1.4 billion.
Trump, who had been pressing for billions more, has vowed to
declare a national state of emergency to fund the remainder of
the project.

Amid the congressional debate, Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw wrote
on Twitter earlier Thursday that he wanted O'Rourke to answer a
simple question: "If you could snap your fingers and make El
Paso’s border wall disappear, would you?" He cited Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) figures suggesting that illegal border
crossings dropped sharply in El Paso following the construction
of a wall there.

WHAT'S IN THE BILL PASSED BY CONGRESS THURSDAY NIGHT? MORE
DETENTION BEDS FOR ICE, MONEY FOR WALL

MSNBC host Chris Hayes posed a version of that question to
O'Rourke on-air: "Would you, if you could, would you take the
wall down here -- knock it down?"

"Yes, absolutely," answered O'Rourke, who is widely thought to
be a potential candidate in 2020 but has not formally announced
his intention to run. "I'd take the wall down."

Asked whether El Paso residents would support that move in a
referendum, O'Rourke replied, "I do."

He continued: "Here's what we know. After the Secure Fence Act
[of 2006], we have built 600 miles of wall and fencing on a
2,000-mile border. What that has done is not in any demonstrable
way made us safer. It's cost us tens of billions of dollars to
build and maintain. And it's pushed migrants and asylum seekers
and refugees to the most inhospitable, the most hostile
stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border, ensuring their suffering
and death."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other
Democrats, including then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary
Clinton, supported the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which
authorized the construction of some 700 miles of fencing at the
border. As of 2015, virtually all of that fencing had been
completed, according to government figures.

Embedded video

Mac McClung Fan Account
?
@LPDonovan
Full clip of that Beto wall answer via @Julio_Rosas11--I can't
tell if this was an ad hoc riff or a response he has given
before, but I'm curious to see public polling on this.

49
5:58 PM - Feb 14, 2019
64 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
"More than 4,000 human beings, little kids, women and children,
have died," O'Rourke continued. "They're not in cages, they're
not locked up, they're not separated -- 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, to be with family, to work jobs, to do what any human
being should have a right to be able to do, what we would do if
faced with the same circumstances they were."

In response, Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, asked
on Twitter whether other possible or declared Democratic White
House hopefuls agreed.


Brad Parscale
?
@parscale
Curious to know if @KamalaHarris, @CoryBooker, @ewarren,
@JulianCastro, @gillibrandny and @amyklobuchar agree with
@BetoORourke that we should tear down the wall that already
exists at the border? ????

Ryan Saavedra
?
@RealSaavedra
Democrat Beto O'Rourke says he wants to knock down the existing
border barriers on the southern border

MSNBC's Chris Hayes: "If you could, would you take the wall down
now? Knock it down?"

O'Rourke: "Yes, absolutely. I would take the wall down." pic.twitter.com/0jYSc1kKh8

7,753
5:49 PM - Feb 14, 2019
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4,963 people are talking about this
Earlier this month, Trump challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
who has called the White House's proposed southern border wall
"an immorality," to explain why she is not insisting on the
removal of existing physical barriers, or opposing ongoing
construction of new wall projects near San Diego.

"If Nancy Pelosi thinks that Walls are 'immoral,' why isn’t she
requesting that we take down all of the existing Walls between
the U.S. and Mexico, even the new ones just built in San Diego
at their very strong urging," Trump tweeted. "Let millions of
unchecked 'strangers' just flow into the U.S."

Some progressives in Congress, including Democratic Texas Rep.
Veronica Escobar, insisted this month that "we know walls don't
work." Escobar, signaling she may support removing some
barriers, called walls "ugly" and "monuments to division."

The San Diego Union-Tribune has reported that physical barriers,
including walling and fencing, encompass some 46 miles of the
city's 60-mile border with Mexico. In February, construction is
slated to begin on 14 miles of additional secondary walling,
with work to begin on 15 miles of replacement wall this summer.

Earlier this month, in an interview with CNN, Democratic
California Rep. Juan Vargas acknowledged that those physical
defenses were effective and enhanced security for local
residents.

TRUMP MOCKS O'ROURKE IN MAJOR TEXAS RALLY

"I mean, you go to the border and you see long lines of people
waiting to come in. ... So we do have a problem of having huge
wait lines to come in,” Vargas told anchor Don Lemon. “You know,
there is fencing already there, to be honest with you. There are
places where we already have fencing where it made sense for
some security.”

O'Rourke's comments to MSNBC on Thursday, however, were the most
stark anti-wall comments yet by a prominent Democrat -- and set
up another potential confrontation between Trump and the
progressive star. On Monday night, Trump held a campaign-style
rally in El Paso — just as O'Rourke led a border wall protest
roughly a half-mile away.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/beto-orourke-says-he-absolutely- supports-destroying-existing-walls-on-southern-border
 

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