EL PASO, Texas — As El Paso continues to grieve the loss of 22 people who were killed when a gunman opened fire in a Walmart, some community members are not happy that the president is coming on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump is coming to meet with first responders, law enforcement and the victims of the shooting, according to a Tuesday tweet.
Jose Ramirez, who was paying his respects at a large memorial at the Walmart, said he didn't think it was the right time for Trump to visit.
"I think he hasn't done enough to atone for what he's said and done to our nation," Ramirez said.
Some people, like Jared Madrid, say he hopes the president sticks to showing his condolences and keeps politics out of the visit.
"If he's coming here to show his condolences and to show his respect after what's happened this last weekend, I don't have a problem with it," Madrid said.
"If this is some kind of political agenda, I think it just needs to be put off to the side because, as you can see, there are still people who are mourning this."
A woman named Vivian said she believed Trump's ongoing rhetoric against Hispanics and immigrants led to the type of violence that El Paso saw.
"My mom is a very strong Hispanic person and she said that it was going to happen because of what Trump said about the immigrants and everything, that it was an infestation," she said.
"She knew something bad was going to happen and look, it happened."
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke agreed with that sentiment.
"The president has helped to create the type of violence that we saw here in El Paso," O'Rourke told 12 News.
"His description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals. His use time and again the word 'invasion' to describe immigrants and asylum seekers, calling them an infestation. It is that kind of fear that he wants us to feel, that kind of hatred that has now expressed itself in that kind of violence."