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Today, on the third anniversary of the domestic terrorist attack in El Paso, Texas, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) issued the following statement during the Border Network for Human Right’s El Paso Firme Community Memorial Event. Below are her remarks as written:

“Three years ago, El Paso was forever changed when a domestic terrorist drove over 700 miles to carry out racist violence he had outlined in an online screed. He confessed that he wanted to slaughter Mexicans and immigrants, using the same white nationalist conspiracy theories pushed by the President at the time and still used today by politicians in Washington and Austin. On that terrible day, El Paso faced the consequences of that hateful, xenophobic disinformation and the easy access to guns.

In the years since, honoring the victims and survivors of the attack has been a priority for me and our office. In March of this year, the House passed my bill to designate the El Paso Healing Garden as a national memorial and we are working to get it passed in the Senate. Last Friday, I presided on the House floor over part of the debate on the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 and proudly cast my vote for this bill in honor of the victims and survivors of August 3rd. I will continue to lead and support legislation that get us closer to ensuring all people are free to live their lives without fear of being gunned down at the grocery store, at church, in school, at an Independence Day parade, or at a Walmart.

Our country continues to struggle with our national gun violence crisis as well and the furthering of dangerous white supremacist conspiracy theories. But just as we’ve lived the tragedy of all of this, we have also never lost touch of our humanity or what makes El Paso special. The love we continue to show one another is the source of our greatest strength. Our community gives me reason to be hopeful. It gives me reason to remain resilient. It gives me reason to continue the good fight. El Paso and her people are, and always will be, El Paso Strong.”

In memory of André Pablo Anchondo, Jordan Kae Anchondo, Arturo Benavides, Jorge Calvillo Garcia, Leonardo Campos Jr., Maribel Hernandez-Loya, Adolfo Cerros Hernández, Sara Esther Regalado Monreal, Guillermo "Coach Memo" Garcia, Angelina Silva Englisbee, Maria Muñoz Flores, Raul Estrada Flores, Gerhard Alexander Hoffmann, David Alvah Johnson, Luis Alfonso Juarez, Maria Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, Ivan Manzano, Gloria Irma Marquez, Elsa L. Mendoza, Margie Reckard, Javier Amir Rodriguez, Teresa Trinidad Sanchez Guerra, and Juan De Dios Velazquez.