A Democratic senator who traveled to the US-Mexico border in a bid to tour an immigration detention center for children had police called on him by the facility’s staff – who didn’t know what to do with him.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, visited the McAllen, Texas site on Sunday, seeking a tour and a conversation with officials about the Trump administration policy of separating children from their parents seeking asylum at the border. He posted a 25-minute video of the political statement on Facebook, which has received more than 14,000 comments.
‘It’s unacceptable that a member of Congress is not being admitted to see what’s happening to children whose families are applying for asylum,’ Merkley said Sunday outside of the facility.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) shakes hands with police outside of a McAllen, Texas detention center for children of refugees who have been separated from their parents
The New York Times reports an estimated 700 children have been separated from their parents under the Trump administration. Nearly 80,000 people came to the U.S. in family groups between October 2017 – April 2018.
‘If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally,’ U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a speech last month.
Merkley said he made the trip to learn more about the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from parents seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, and to ‘demand answers’ about how the youth were being treated.
‘This cruel treatment of children and families arriving to the U.S. is completely un-American and unacceptable,’ he said in a statement. ‘Americans should be outraged by the fact that our taxpayer dollars are being used to inflict spiteful and traumatizing policies on innocent children.’
The senator had hoped to obtain a tour of the facility, which he claimed housed ‘many hundreds of children.’
He said his team had contacted the nonprofit subcontractor that runs the center in advance and was told that he could not have a tour. He went anyway in hopes of gaining access to the facility, which had all of its windows blacked out.
‘They do not want members of Congress seeing what’s going on inside,’ Merkley said. ‘They don’t want the public to see what’s going on inside.’
‘I think that this is a part of a strategy of trying to prevent the public and our decision-makers from really seeing what is going on,’ he added. ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’
The staff of the facility told Merkley that he was not allowed to be there and that they couldn’t comment. After about 15 minutes of broadcasting his visit on Facebook live on Sunday, the police arrived – apparently in response to calls by people who ran the facility.
‘Can you imagine you come to this strange land and you’ve gone through some type of horrific impact abroad and so you’re seeking asylum and the first thing that happens when you get here is you’re torn away from your parents. What kind of impact does that have on these children?’ Merkley asked.
Sen. Jeff Merkley stands in front of a facility where children of immigrants seeking asylum are being housed in Texas. He traveled there and attempted to get a tour so he could see the conditions in which the children are being held
Sen. Jeff Merkley makes a call from outside of a former Walmart that reportedly houses the children of immigrants seeking asylum near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. The windows and glass on the sliding doors have been blacked out making it impossible to see into the facility