LEADER JEFFRIES STATEMENT MARKING FOUR YEARS SINCE THE EL PASO SHOOTING

Brooklyn, NY – Today, Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement marking four years since the deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas. 

Four years ago, a gunman motivated by white nationalist conspiracy theories terrorized El Paso’s Latino community and stole 23 innocent lives while leaving 22 more injured. Today, we continue to pray for the families of the victims and the entire city of El Paso and we remain committed to ending the scourge of gun violence and xenophobia once and for all. 

Last Congress, Democrats led the way by sending gun violence prevention legislation to the president’s desk for the first time in three decades. The bill we passed will save lives but there is still more work to be done. While extreme MAGA Republicans have shown that they are willing to flood our communities with weapons of war, House Democrats are continuing to fight for commonsense gun safety legislation, like universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons like the one used in the El Paso shooting. 

We will never forget the lives lost in this horrific act of domestic terrorism and we will continue to call out the dangerous, anti-immigrant rhetoric that caused this tragedy. May God bless the city of El Paso, our Latino brothers and sisters and every community that has felt the pain of the gun violence epidemic.