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Tag: marcelo ebrard
Death Toll In El Paso Climbs To 22

Death Toll In El Paso Climbs To 22

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

EL PASO — The number of fatalities following Saturday’s deadly shooting rampage at a Walmart has climbed to 22, according to the El Paso Police Department and local hospital officials.

“Sad to report that the number of fatalities increased by one. Victim passed early this morning at the hospital,” the department’s official Twitter account posted Monday. No other details about the victim were offered.

Del Sol Medical Center CEO David Shimp said at a press conference streamed by the Austin American-Statesman that another person had also died Monday. Shimp said that one of the other victims being treated at the hospital remains in critical condition.

More than two dozen other people were also wounded and authorities said last weekend the number of fatalities could continue to climb. At 22, the death toll is just one shy of the number of homicides recorded in the city last year. Homicides the two years prior were even less frequent, with 16 and 20 recorded in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

The death toll also included at least seven Mexican citizens who were at the shopping center when the alleged gunman, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, north of Dallas, began firing a high-powered weapon that El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said was purchased legally.

“The FBI remains concerned that U.S.-based domestic violent extremists could become inspired by these and previous high-profile attacks to engage in similar acts of violence,” an agency statement said. “The FBI asks the American public to report to law enforcement any suspicious activity that is observed either in person or online.”

Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard called the shooting “an act of terrorism against the Mexican-American community and Mexican nationals in the United States,” Politico reported. He tweeted that he would be in El Paso Monday; calls to the office of the Mexican Consul General’s office in El Paso seeking more information about the visit weren’t immediately returned.

On Sunday police said the suspect was cooperating with authorities and said they were still trying to link an anti-immigrant, anti-Hispanic manifesto to the alleged gunman.

He was charged with state capital murder and is also facing possible federal domestic terrorism charges, federal authorities said.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2019/08/05/death-toll-el-paso-shooting-climbs-21/. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Mexican Foreign Minister Rejects Trump Claim Of Secret Deal On Immigration

Mexican Foreign Minister Rejects Trump Claim Of Secret Deal On Immigration

During a Monday press conference, Mexico’s foreign secretary Marcelo Ebrard said there is no secret immigration deal with the United States, directly contradicting Trump claim that there was.

Ebrard said Mexico is working with the United Nations to establish a regional asylum and refuge system in cooperation with Guatemala, Panama, and Brazil.

“They wanted something else totally different … to be signed,” Ebrard said Monday. “But that is what there is here. There is no other thing beyond what I have just explained.”

Ebrard’s statement flies in the face of Trump’s recent comment about a secret immigration deal he signed with Mexico.

“We have fully signed and documented another very important part of the Immigration and Security deal with Mexico, one that the U.S. has been asking about getting for many years,” Trump said Monday morning, apparently making up a nonexistent secret signed agreement with Mexico. “It will be revealed in the not too distant future and will need a vote by Mexico’s Legislative body!”

According to the New York Times, administration officials said Trump may have been referring to an agreement by the two countries to discuss the migration situation again in 45 days and then again in 90 days.

The U.S. and Mexico have been in discussion about immigration recently because in late May Trump threatened to put a five percent tariff on all goods coming from Mexico unless all “illegal immigration” coming into the U.S. from the southern border stopped.

Trump’s tariff proposal was almost universally panned as economically harmful, and even some (but not all) Republican Senators came out against the idea.

After a significant amount of bluster from Trump, he eventually caved, agreeing not to institute tariffs for the time being.

Trump withdrew his trade war threat without any new or significant concessions from Mexico; instead, the Mexican government reiterated promises it made months ago.

But Trump apparently could not leave well enough alone and decided to pretend that there was some sort of secret immigration deal he struck. There is no evidence of any secret deal, and Mexico’s foreign secretary rejected any such notion.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

IMAGE: Migrants get off a bus, after they were deported from Mexico, at the main migration center in San Salvador, El Salvador April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas