Huffington Post: El Paso is fighting to reclaim the border’s soul

Driving along El Paso’s Rim Road, which hugs the southern tip of the Rockies, it’s difficult to tell where Texas ends and Mexico begins.

Looking down on the town below, a thick, black line marks the desert sand ahead in the distance, running over a hill into the emptiness beyond. It’s a fence, the very visible border that divides El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. Behind it curves the Rio Grande, a skeleton of its former self used primarily for irrigation once it hits Texas.

Mention that fence and you’ll have Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in your ear. The fence, for O’Rourke, symbolizes all that’s wrong with outside perceptions of the border and what it’s like to live just across the river from Mexico.

“I’m really embarrassed by the fence,” O’Rourke told The Huffington Post. “We are the largest truly binational community in the world and our connection is our strength. Any attempt to divide that or separate it, especially with this awful fence the East Germans would be ashamed of, is the wrong way to go.”

While Republican presidential hopefuls debated Thursday night for the first time, arguing for more security on the border, and a higher wall, O’Rourke prepped for the highlight of the U.S.-Mexico summit he put together this week: a 10K race looping from El Paso into Juarez, and ending atop the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry.

Read the full Huffington Post piece at http://huff.to/1gtxbbn