Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke traveled to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico on Sunday to meet with migrants who were “turned away” from the southern U.S border.
The former Democratic Texas congressman, whose district was on the border, said he was meeting with the migrants because they are people who are “directly impacted by Donald Trump’s cruel and inhumane policies,” according to the Associated Press.
The purpose of the trip, the campaign claimed, is to “shed light on the desperate circumstances those who are seeking asylum and refuge are fleeing, and the conditions these families and individuals are forced to endure when they’ve been turned away from our borders.”
In Ciudad Juarez, @BetoORourke meets with Central American asylum seekers forced to wait at a Mexican shelter. 19-year-old woman on the left was separated from her parents and younger siblings at the border. They were allowed to go to California; she was sent to Juarez. pic.twitter.com/A5XVJKf6P4
— Bob Moore (@BobMooreNews) June 30, 2019
This is O’Rourke’s first trip to Mexico as a presidential hopeful, and the first international trip of a Democratic candidate during the campaign.
O’Rourke has criticized President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which has asylum seekers wait in Mexico instead of the United States as their claims are evaluated and processed.
He blamed Trump for the recent deaths of a migrant father and his daughter, who both drowned as they attempted to cross the Rio Grande river.
Trump is responsible for these deaths. https://t.co/UZirFjh3fm
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) June 26, 2019
