Two Years After El Paso Shooting, President Biden Calls to ‘Stand United Against Hate and Violence’

“To the families of the 23 souls lost on this day two years ago in El Paso, Jill and I send you our love. While our losses are not the same as yours, grief is universal. We know the pain of today may still feel as fresh as it was when you first heard the news, knowing all that you lost can never be replaced.”

This is how President Joe Biden starts an editorial piece he wrote for the El Paso Times, two years after tragedy struck down the city of El Paso, taking a stand against hate and violence in a divided America. 

On Aug. 3, 2019, a Texas man traveled 700 miles from a Dallas suburb to El Paso and opened fire with an automatic rifle, targeting the city’s Hispanic population. The domestic terrorist killed 23 people and injured over two dozen more, making it the country’s worst attack on Latinos in recent memory. It showed how much white supremacy and racism is still present today in the United States.

President Biden has always been vocal against racism and not only does he condemns these actions taken by white supremacists and domestic terrorists, but also calls out to the good people in America to “work together to counter the forces of violent hatred”.

Closing the article, President Biden reinforced these ideas and said that there is a duty to unite against hate, that the good people in America owe it to the victims of the shooting:

“We must all work together to defend our values, our democracy, and our freedom to live together peacefully.  We owe it to the families of El Paso. We owe it to each other and for the soul of our very country,” he wrote.

Texas Democrats also published a statement today, remembering the victims of the tragic assault on Hispanic communities and Democracy in America by White Supremacists.