The shaded bus stop near the Paso del Norte bridge offers daily transport across the border to various sites in El Paso, including downtown, the airport, the bus station β and the Cielo Vista Mall. That shopping center earned national notoriety on Saturday when a gunman β apparently motivated by hate of Latino immigrants β shot 20 dead people at the Walmart next door to the mall.
And more than five Mexican citizens were injured. Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico would contemplate legal action against whoever sold the gun that was used, and would also consider filing terrorism charges against anyone implicated in the shooting. Those responsible could face extradition to Mexico, he said. Many Juarez residents with means have relocated to El Paso and purchased homes there. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of people from Juarez head across the international boundary daily to shop, run errands, and meet friends in El Paso, a tradition shared in border towns from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico.
The movement of people also flows the other way. Border towns like El Paso-Juarez, home to some 2 million people, are sometimes best viewed as single metropolitan areas, sharing common populations, cultures and language β mostly Spanish. Many seemed inclined to blame President Trump for inflaming passions against immigrants and Mexicans in particular. His repeated threats to shut the border have enhanced his image here as a serial basher of Mexico and of Mexicans.
Authorities had not officially named the slain Mexican citizens, and some were seeking missing loved ones in social media posts. But family members here identified one victim as a Juarez resident, Elsa Mendoza Marquez, 57, an elementary school teacher and mother of two adult children. She had crossed the border on Saturday and entered the Walmart while family members remained outside the store, according to social media and press accounts.
Accompanying the post was a photo of the middle-aged couple smiling into the camera, a glass of red wine in the foreground. The Mexican foreign ministry said that a father and his daughter, 10, both from the northern Mexican city of Chihuahua, were among those injured in the attack and remained hospitalized in El Paso.
