Watch Live Stream: Trump Stages MAGA Rally In El Paso, Texas

EL PASO, TEXAS — As he tries to drum up support to build a wall along the U.S. southern border, Donald Trump is scheduled to stage a rally in El Paso, Texas, on Monday evening.

The "Make America Great Again" rally is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. CST from the El Paso County Coliseum. Doors started to open at 4 p.m, according to reports. Tickets to the event were offered free of charge, available via the Trump campaign website.

At last check, Trump supporters were well ensconced in the spacious coliseum surroundings. Outside the building, demonstrations were taking place largely among El Paso residents upset with Trump's false claims about the city's crime rate as he tries to achieve his signature campaign promise of building a wall to dissuade illegal immigration.

Numerous outlets will be live streaming the event, including KVIA, the ABC affiliate television station in El Paso. Click the link below to watch the live stream.

WATCH LIVE STREAM: DONALD TRUMP RALLY IN EL PASO

Soon after Trump began to speak, protesters who managed to infiltrate the gathering were escorted out amid spontaneous heckling. "Where do these people come from?" Trumped ad-libbed after one such interruption. In response to the interlopers, Trump's supporters shouted "Finish the wall!"while waving signs bearing the sentiment in a revision of the original rallying cry of "Build the wall!"

Construction of a wall along the southern border is Trump's signature campaign promise when he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2016. He launched his campaign largely under a "law and order" platform, demonizing immigrants arriving from Latin America as criminals and rapists in a message that continues to energize his base. Yet despite Trump's claims, numerous studies have shown that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at exponentially lower rates than the native-born, rendering offenses by the former group as statistically negligible.

Like the revised chant of "Finish the wall!" heard and seen at Monday's rally, another bit of calculation related to construction plans centers on the source of its funding. Trump vowed repeatedly — while on the stump and later as president —that Mexico would pay for the wall, a promise that has since been shuttered as Trump seeks funding to build it with a $5.7 billion earmark in the federal budget derived from U.S. taxpayers.

Trump's rally in El Paso comes three days before the possibility of a second federal government shutdown after the one recently lifted that lasted 35 days — the longest such closure in U.S. history. Trump vowed to Democrats he would shut the government down if he didn't secure more than $5 billion for wall construction, a threat he made later made good on before allowing the government to re-open temporarily contingent on revisiting the issue on Feb. 15.

Ahead of his scheduled rally, Trump has come under considerable fire for having falsely stated that El Paso had one of the nation's highest crime rates prior to construction of a barrier — a claim that has been widely debunked, contradicting the FBI's Uniform Crime Statistics and other historical data. He first made the claims during the State of the Union address last Tuesday.

Related story: Trump Plans Campaign Rally In Texas Border City Of El Paso

Spearheading a concurrent, counter-march and rally in El Paso is native son and possible 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke, a congressman hailing from the Texas border city. O'Rourke has joined a chorus of critics taking issue with Trump's false claims positing El Paso as once among the nation's most crime-ridden cities.

Taking on more of a pro-O'Rourke rally than necessarily anti-Trump, the congressman was joined by numerous supporters outside the coliseum more than an hour before the president's rally began. As if making a statement about the safety of his hometown, O'Rourke marched among the crowds with his wife and three children in tow prior to his formal remarks to followers gathereed to hear him speak.

Numerous media outlets will be live streaming O'Rourke's rally as well, including CBS News. Click below to see the O'Rourke rally from El Paso.

WATCH LIVE STREAM: BETO O'ROURKE RALLY IN EL PASO

O'Rourke came within a mere three percentage points in his bid during the midterm elections to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — an implausible showing given deep Republican control in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. O'Rourke's strong showing has heightened speculation of a possible 2020 presidential run, a goal the congressman said he would decide by month's end whether or not to pursue.

With a population of some 700,000 residents, El Paso is a mere 9.3 miles from the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez in the state of Chihuahua. Despite Trump's painting the Texas city as a hotbed of violence given its proximity to Mexico, the site SmartTravel reports the city "...is relatively safe in the daytime. But like any large city, there are areas you should avoid at night."

Get Patch's Daily Newsletters and Real Time Alerts

>>> Photo credit: Evan Vucci/Associated Press