President Donald Trump will take his border wall call on the road to El Paso, a city that is nestled up to Mexico, next week.

El Paso is also the hometown of one of Trump's potential 2020 rivals, former Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke.

O'Rourke acknowledged this week that he's considering a bid for the Democratic nomination for the presidency. He'd join one of the largest classes of contenders the party has ever seen if he follows through.

President Donald Trump will take his border wall call on the road to El Paso, a city that is nestled up to Mexico, next week.

Hours later, O'Rourke finally responded to Trump's claims about El Paso and crime

El Paso is separated from the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez by the Rio Grande.

Trump name-checked the city on Tuesday evening during his State of the Union address as he pressed for a border barrier.

'The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime — one of the highest in the country, and considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities,' Trump said. 'Now, immediately upon its building, with a powerful barrier in place, El Paso is one of our safest cities.'

He said: 'Simply put, walls work and walls save lives.'

El Paso Sheriff Richard Wiles immediately accused Trump of promoting 'falsehoods' in order to 'justify the building of a 2,000 mile wall.'

The law enforcement officer who identifies as a Democrat told NBC News, 'The facts are clear. While it is true that El Paso is one of the safest cities in the nation, it has never been ... considered one of our nation's most dangerous cities.

'And, El Paso was a safe city long before any wall was built. President Trump continues to give a false narrative about a great city that truly represents what this great nation is all about,' he charged.

El Paso's crime rate was already dropping when the barrier that Trump referred to went up as part of the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Crime was at its peak in 1993, and it fell almost every year until 2007, when it began to creep back up.

FBI crime data shows that the number of incidents increased during construction of the wall, 2008, and in the year after, 2009, according to the El Paso Times.

The rate of violent crime for those years and the years since is far lower than it was at anytime between 1986 and 2004.

O'Rourke was a member of the city council in El Paso from 2005 to 2011.

Trump's claim that the wall 'immediately' cut down on violence is not true, the crime statistics show. Violent crime was less of a problem in the two years prior to the wall's construction than after it went up.

O'Rourke sought to set the record straight on Wednesday afternoon, nearly 17 hours after Trump's initial assault.

'Our government built a border fence in El Paso in 2008, a misguided response to 9/11 (no terrorists have crossed the southern border and attacked this country). It didn’t make us any safer. In fact crime in El Paso increased after it was built,' he said, linking to a Vox article.

A second tweet pushed back on Trump's 'militarization' of the southern border.

'Not only that, but walls and militarization of the border have resulted in the deaths of thousands of migrants, including children,' he said. 'We are pushing desperate families to cross in ever more hostile terrain. We are ensuring greater suffering and death.'

O'Rourke declared, 'This cynical rhetoric of war, of invasions, of fear — totally disconnected from the truth — has led us to treat our fellow humans in the most inhumane way. And it hasn’t made us safer. We thought we could sacrifice some of our humanity for security, we risk losing both.'

Not one to back down from a fight, Trump will travel to Texas next week on Monday to make his point.

Members of Congress face a Friday deadline to agree on a proposal to fund areas of the federal government and satiate Trump's desire for a border structure.

Trump pushed a bipartisan message at his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, but his immigration remarks drew audible groans from Democratic lawmakers.

He declared that 'tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate, it is actually very cruel' and proposed a 'physical barrier or wall' as a 'commonsense' solution to the problem.

'But the proper wall never got built. I will get it built,' he said of past efforts to fund a border barrier.

Beto O'Rourke speaks onstage during Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations at PlayStation Theater on February 5 in New York City, hours before President Trump's State of the Union address

'This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier — not just a simple concrete wall. It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need, and as these agents will tell you, where walls go up, illegal crossings go way down,' Trump insisted.

The section was met with loud applause from Republicans in his congressional audience.

'So let's work together, compromise and reach a deal that will truly make America safe,' he said.

Trump did not declare a national emergency on the border, as he hinted that he could, and instead characterized the situation as a 'urgent national crisis' that should concern legislators from both parties.

He went on to note that Congress has 10 days left to come up with a plan to fund the federal government, including the Department of Homeland Security, before a Feb. 15 deadline.

'Now is the time for Congress to show the world that America is committed to ending illegal immigration,' he stated.

Trump was met with grunts as he brought up a new group of migrants making their way through Mexico. He suggested that a previous caravan was full of violent criminals, and maybe even terrorists, as he campaigned in last year's election.

'As we speak, large organized caravans are on the march to the United States,' he said on Tuesday night.

Democrats could be heard sighing as he led into the topic — and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could be seen signaling to them from her seat behind Trump that they needed to settle down.

She had a copy of Trump's remarks that she was actively reading through as he spoke, so she could telegraph what he planned to say next to the room.

Trump's solution was a 'physical barrier or wall,' which he said is a 'common sense' solution to the problem

The president informed lawmakers that he had 'ordered another 3,750 troops to our southern border to prepare for this tremendous onslaught' as he described immigration reform as a 'moral' imperative that Congress must take on.

'I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally,' the president insisted.

Trump said that illegal immigration truly shows a divide between working class Americans and the political class as he took a dig at affluent Democrats sitting in the House chamber.

'Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards,' he charged. 'Meanwhile working class Americans are left to pay the pay the price for mass illegal immigration.'

The president is sure to turn the dispute into a partisan attack on Democrats, and possibly O'Rourke, when he rallies his supporters in El Paso on Monday.

O'Rourke lost to Cruz in red-heavy Texas in November. With newfound free time now that he no longer serves in Congress, the 46-year-old Democrat embarked on an American listening tour, setting off speculation that he has his gaze set on another political office.

He told Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday that he is considering an Oval Office bid, and he'll make a decision by the end of the month.

'I have been thinking about running for president,' he confirmed. 'I’m so excited at the prospect of being able to play that role.'



Trump's rally on Feb. 11 would take place in advance of O'Rourke's announcement, offering a preview of what a head-to-head combat between the two politicians would look like.

Very few candidates have caught the eye of the president, who is notorious for attacking opponents in searing tweets, so far. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom he derisively calls 'Pocahontas' in a nod to her Indian heritage scandal, is the main exception.

In picking El Paso for his last stand against Democrats resisting his border wall, Trump signaled Wednesday that he's planning a full-out assault on O'Rourke, who once ran the town that the president wants to isolate from Mexico with a physical barrier.

O'Rourke and Trump have sparred before. Trump campaigned against him, and for sitting Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, in the last election.

Trump said the congressman vying to become a senator is a 'lightweight' who wanted to impose socialism on America.

'Beto O’Rourke is a total lightweight compared to Ted Cruz, and he comes nowhere near representing the values and desires of the people of the Great State of Texas,' he contended. 'He will never be allowed to turn Texas into Venezuela!'

O’Rourke angered Trump by claiming that the president had committed impeachable acts. The claim set him apart from peers in Congress who said they'd remove Trump if a swath of investigations found evidence of law-breaking activity. So far, they said, the probes hadn't.

At a CNN townhall, O'Rourke said, 'I do think there's enough there for impeachment.'