He renewed his call for a border wall and cast illegal immigration as a threat to Americans' safety and economic security.
US lawmakers negotiating a deal with President Donald Trump on border security funding on Thursday said progress was being made, with Democratic Senator Jon Tester raising the possibility of a successful conclusion to talks as soon as Friday.
Pelosi told reporters that she believes the House and Senate negotiators could reach a deal by the end of this week if "left to their own devices".
Hours after declaring that the El Paso border area was once one of the most risky cities in the country but was transformed nearly overnight to one of the safest because of a border wall, President Donald Trump announced he is holding a MAGA rally in El Paso this Monday, Feb. 11.
"Now, immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of the safest cities in our country", the president said.
Trump's State of the Union address touched on significant national achievements like the record number of women in Congress and criminal justice reform while condemning the anti-Semitic mass shooting last fall in Pittsburgh.
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Trump cited El Paso as once having "extremely high rates of violent crime". At its worst ever, El Paso suffered more than 6,500 violent crimes in 1993, but today it's fewer than 2,500, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics.
Trump agreed in late January to temporarily re-open the government for three weeks until February 15 and allow for a period of negotiations, stipulating that a national emergency declaration is all but certain if his terms are not met.
"I think he knows what he is doing".
US officials are "metering" asylum claims, accepting only about a dozen per day because they say the facilities at Eagle Pass are at capacity.
The violent crime rate in El Paso peaked in 1993 (similar to many other USA cities), according to local and federal statistics analyzed by the El Paso Times. "El Paso is one of the safest cities in the nation, it has never been '... considered one of our Nation's most risky cities, ' and, El Paso was a safe city long before any Wall was built".
Last year, a bipartisan Senate panel approved $1.6 billion for 65 miles of pedestrian fencing in Texas - in line with Trump's official request.
Former El Paso Police Chief Russ Leach told the El Paso Times in 1997 that credit for the drop in crime should go to city residents.
Miguel Riquelme, the Governor of Coahuila, a Mexican state near the U.S. border, told local newspapers that he will not allow more migrants to travel through the area. The event will begin at 5 p.m. and O'Rourke is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m., the same time Mr. Trump's "Make America Great Again" rally is set to start.
