Images reportedly circulating on social media show about six people wearing pointed white Ku Klux Klan robes at an apparent Halloween gathering in El Paso, including scenes in a backyard and on a dark neighborhood street. The images have triggered swift condemnation from the El Paso NAACP branch and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, with the civil rights organization scheduling a news conference for Monday to formally address the incident.
According to the El Paso Times, the group depicted in the videos and photos may have included teenagers, and reports described them allegedly shouting racial slurs in the community. A social media page identified as FitFam El Paso claimed the neighborhood where the gathering took place was on the city's east side, though that location has not been independently confirmed.
The El Paso NAACP branch said in a statement that it wanted to “express its utter outrage, disgust and righteous indignation” over the imagery, according to KTSM. Branch president Carl B. Dwyer Jr. called on local leadership to speak out, saying, “We demand that every leader in this city step forward immediately and denounce this unacceptable behavior.”
NAACP Vows to Keep Watching the Situation
The organization said it intends to keep tracking developments, telling KTSM it would “monitor this situation, engage with community stakeholders and advocate tirelessly” for racial justice, safety and equity going forward. The branch's scheduled news conference is set to formally address the incident, though what the NAACP plans to announce has not been disclosed.
Escobar, the congresswoman representing El Paso, issued her own statement calling the reports deeply disturbing and unacceptable. She said the KKK represents “a shameful history of white supremacy, racial terror, and violence against Black Americans and other communities of color,” and argued that treating that history as a costume is not a joke, per the same report from the El Paso Times.
“No one should fear being targeted or harassed for who they are or what they look like,” Escobar said, describing El Paso as a community built on diversity, resilience and respect for neighbors. She added that no El Pasoan is too young to understand that racism has no place in the community.
A Klan History That Reaches Back a Century in El Paso
The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist hate group dating back to 1865 and has been described as the oldest terrorist group in the United States because of its history of racist violence, the El Paso Times reported. The group had a documented presence in El Paso more than 100 years ago, when Klan-backed candidates ran for mayor and other city offices in 1923 — and lost.
What remains unclear in the current case is whether any crime occurred or whether law enforcement has opened an investigation. No police, sheriff's office or prosecutor statement confirming an investigation, citation or hate-crime classification tied to the El Paso gathering has been made public.
How Other Cities Have Handled Similar Incidents
Costumed Klan displays have surfaced elsewhere in recent months, and the outcomes have varied. In San Luis Obispo, California, police arrested a 55-year-old man in September after he wore KKK-style regalia near a Trader Joe's and threw traffic cones into the road, but officers there noted that “wearing an offensive costume or outfit wouldn't be a crime in itself,” according to KCBX, unless additional criminal conduct accompanied it.
In West Warwick, Rhode Island, police determined a similar sighting was “part of a hoax for social media, not the work of an organized group,” orchestrated by two brothers, and closed their investigation once they reached that conclusion, Boston.com reported. And in Nova Scotia, four people wore white robes and pointed caps, one carrying a cross, to a Halloween dance at the North Sydney Firefighters Club in October 2024. Cape Breton Regional Police later concluded, as CBC News reported, that “this incident did not meet the threshold for a criminal offence that would result in charges.”
Whether the El Paso case follows a similar path remains to be seen, since no law enforcement agency has publicly weighed in on the images. The FBI tracks hate-crime data covering bias motivated by race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or ethnicity, including incidents involving juveniles, according to the FBI. The bureau's El Paso field office has separately urged residents to report hate crimes to law enforcement as part of broader outreach across West Texas, per the FBI El Paso field office.
For now, the identities of those shown in the El Paso images, the precise circumstances of the gathering and whether any official investigation is underway remain unconfirmed. The NAACP's Monday news conference is expected to be the next public step in addressing a controversy that has already drawn condemnation from the city's congressional delegation and civil rights advocates alike.
