Beto O'Rourke stood blocks from a makeshift shelter under a Downtown El Paso international bridge for his presidential campaign kickoff rally on Saturday and challenged President Donald Trump's immigration policies, saying the migrants held in the cramped outdoor space should be treated with dignity.

"Let's remember that every single one of us — including those who are just three or four blocks from here, detained under the international bridge that connects us with Mexico, behind chain-link fence and barbed wire — that they are our fellow human beings and deserve to be treated like our fellow human beings."

The scenes of migrant families, sitting on dirt with mylar blankets and surrounded by fencing and barbed wire, captured national attention this week when U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan visited El Paso and declared that the border had hit its "breaking point."

O'Rourke visited the makeshift shelter in El Paso the day before he officially launched his presidential bid with a rally on historic South El Paso Street, the multicultural shopping district linked to Mexico by an international bridge.

The location was fitting for a candidate who says he is focused on providing a more nuanced view of the border than the picture painted by Trump.

“El Paso, to me, represents America at its very best," O'Rourke told thousands of supporters who crunched between stores on the street that leads to Juárez, Mexico.

"For more than 100 years, this community has welcomed generations of immigrants from across the Rio Grande — some having traveled hundreds of miles, some having traveled thousands of miles — trying to escape brutality, violence and crushing poverty to find a better life for themselves and for their kids but also to contribute to our shared success and this country’s greatness and they have."

El Paso rally one of three in Texas

About 6,000 people attended the campaign kickoff in El Paso, according to an estimate from the O’Rourke campaign. The El Paso Police Department had no estimate, a police spokesman said.

The rally was one of three that O'Rourke had in Texas on Saturday with one in Houston and another in Austin later that evening. The Houston event drew 10,500 people, according to O'Rourke's campaign.

O'Rourke entered and exited his rally to a track that will be familiar to those who followed his Senate campaign closely — "The Clampdown," by the Clash.

A former member of a punk rock band, O'Rourke has previously mentioned how important the Clash was to his development. He has a portrait of lead singer Joe Strummer hanging in his home opposite a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

The 46-year-old presidential candidate moved about the stage, dressed in what has become his campaign uniform of a light-blue shirt, with the sleeves slightly rolled up. His wife, Amy Sanders O'Rourke, introduced her husband, and their three children came on the stage with their parents.

Escobar touts O'Rourke

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, who was elected in November to O’Rourke’s congressional seat, told the rally crowd that O’Rourke is best qualified to confront the big challenges of this generation, including education, climate change, and creating “an economy that works for everyone" because he's from the "capital of the border."

Escobar said the border is at the center of the test to meet the big challenges of this generation.

"This is a moment in American history when our grandchildren will be reading about what has happened in our history books and they will be asking how did anyone let that happen," Escobar said.

"When they see the photographs from this week of families being corralled under a bridge, they are going to ask, how did we let that happen?" she said. "But I will tell you my friends, in that history book, there will be a chapter on the border and on El Paso. And that chapter will be written about how to deal with the greatest challenges of our generation with charity and goodwill and kindness. That’s who we are."

Counter-rally supports President Trump

A group of Trump supporters had a different view at their demonstration, which was organized by the El Paso County Republican Party, a couple of blocks away.

Bob Peña, one of the pro-Trump demonstrators, said he doesn't like things in O'Rourke's past, and credited Trump for the current good economy.

"This is the Trump economy," Peña said. "We have the highest stock market in history, the highest 401Ks, the highest pensions. It's all the highest it's ever been." he said.

O'Rourke, third in presidential poll, lays out policy goals at rally

O'Rourke's official campaign launch for the Democratic presidential nomination comes a little over two weeks after he announced he was running for president.

Since then, O'Rourke made a 10-day campaign trip to eight states. He raised more than $6 million in individual contributions in less than 24 hours after he announced his candidacy.

He also has risen to third-place in a recent national poll in the crowded Democratic Party's race for the presidential nomination — behind former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to announce his expected candidacy, and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries.

Towards the end of his speech on Saturday, O’Rourke shifted to Spanish, saying that in order to face the challenges of climate change, healthcare for all, and immigration reform, the country needs a democracy that can count on every vote and listen to every person.

O’Rourke said everyone should have the ability to be successful no matter their income, race or the amount of time their family has spent in or out of the United States.

“The success of this country depends on the success of every person in the United States,” O’Rourke said. The crowd responded with chants of “si se puede, si se puede.”

O'Rourke told his rally supporters that the country's wealth needs to benefit more people.

"That means that this extraordinary unprecedented concentration of wealth and power and privilege must be broken apart and opportunity must be shared," O'Rourke said as his father-in-law, wealthy El Paso businessman Bill Sanders, stood below the stage with other O'Rourke family members.

O'Rourke lays out platform

O’Rourke was criticized for not having enough specific policy stands when he made his first, 10-day campaign trip to eight states after announcing his candidacy by video on social media March 14. At his hometown campaign launch, he laid out a laundry list of goals.

He reiterated his call for legalizing marijuana and expunging the records of those arrested for marijuana possession; and called for bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform. He promised to create a new voting rights act and advocated for providing debt-free college education for high school graduates. And he said climate warming had to be stopped by providing incentives to companies to capture carbon emissions and ending the country's dependence on oil and natural gas by investing in new technologies and renewable energy.

On foreign policy, O’Rourke said the United States needs to “re-establish our role on the world stage” and strengthen its historic friendships and alliances.

“Let’s end these love affairs with dictators and strongmen all over the world,” he said.

O'Rourke is the first El Paso politician to seek the nation's highest office and the only candidate in the race who lives on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Carlos Cobos, owner of the 34-year-old California Fashion, who had a ringside seat of the South El Paso Street rally, said he didn't care that the rally may have taken away some of his regular shoppers.

“We don’t care. This is historic," Cobos said. "Someone running from El Paso is exciting for us and important in El Paso and Juárez, too."

But Marco Lozano, owner of 50-year-old Rio Bravo Fabrics, also in the rally area, said the event made it impossible for his customers to park near the store. He said he was losing business.

“I’m not a big Beto supporter. I hope he does well,” Lozano said. If he became president, the notoriety would likely help El Paso and possibly boost tourism, he said.

About the 2020 campaign

O'Rourke's political star rose when he narrowly lost to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz last November, a race that demonstrated O'Rourke's fundraising magic by ringing up more than $80 million in campaign contributions without getting money from PACs (political action committees), corporations, or special-interest groups — something he plans to continue in his presidential quest.

In an email after his El Paso kick-off rally, O’Rourke’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon asked supporters to help raise $1 million online by midnight Sunday, the campaign filing deadline.

Catch up Texas Senate race:Beto 2020: Key moments from the O'Rourke, Ted Cruz Senate race in Texas

O'Rourke, who traveled to all 254 counties in his run against Cruz, has already started touting his presidential road regime.

"El Paso, it was your story that I told all across Texas in every single one of those 254 counties," O'Rourke said.

He drove 2,366 miles and held 51 events in 35 counties in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, where he answered 357 questions from voters, in his first 10 days on the presidential campaign trail, according to his campaign.

"I'm going to continue to demonstrate that everyone in every state is important to the future of this country. And no one can be written off or taken for granted based on where they live or how they voted in the past, or whether they voted at all," O'Rourke told the El Paso Times in an interview two days before he announced his candidacy.

“I just want to serve this country so badly to the highest of my ability, and I believe that is serving as president of the United States,” O'Rourke told the Times.

El Paso Times reporter Bret Bloomquist contributed to this story.

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Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter