The El Paso Community Healing Garden National Memorial is now located on the grounds of Ascarate Park, a memorial to the victims of the 2019 Walmart shooting.
The El Paso Community Healing Garden National Memorial Act, sponsored by Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, is enacted.
“Three years ago, the El Paso community was forever changed as our neighbors and friends were maliciously targeted and attacked,” Cornyn said in a news release Friday. “We remember his 23 lives that were tragically lost that day. I am grateful that I am going to do it.”
A garden at 6900 Delta Drive honors the 23 victims killed in white supremacist attacks targeting Hispanics during the August 3, 2019 domestic terrorist act.
The attack is the deadliest mass shooting of Hispanics in U.S. history.
El Paso County commissioned a healing garden to commemorate the lives lost in the attack, and it will open on August 3, 2021.
The resolution to make the gardens a national monument was sponsored by El Paso Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar. The resolution was passed by the House of Representatives on March 16 with bipartisan support. The resolution will be introduced to the House for the first time on July 9, 2021.
“Our safe, loving, welcoming community, our well-meaning community, is seen as a threat by those who have hate in their hearts,” Escobar told the House of Commons on March 15. . And on August 3rd, El Paso paid the price.”
The bill was introduced in the Senate on June 9th. The bill was co-sponsored by Democratic New Mexico Senator Ben Rey Lujan.
Both the House and Senate bills state that the National Monument is not a unit of the National Park System, and the designation of the El Paso Community Healing Garden National Memorial does not require or approve the expenditure of federal funds.
The monument, located in the metropolitan county park, was funded by donations and the County of El Paso. It is administered by the county’s Parks and Recreation Department.
JAR Construction donated labor and materials for the memorial. Other donations provided water features and landscaping.
