Beto Calls for Public Pressure on Trump: Close Texas Child Migrant Camp holding over 2,500 kids
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/12/beto-orourke-calls-for-public-pressure-on-trump-to-close-child-migrant-camp-1/
Beto ORourke Calls for Public Pressure on Trump to Close Child Migrant Camp
More than 2,500 children are being held in Tornillo, Texas.
Jackie Flynn MogensenDecember 15, 2018 5:37 PM
Rep. Beto ORourke (D-Texas) on Saturday urged Americans to pressure the Trump administration to close a child migrant camp run by the Department of Health and Human Services in Tornillo, Texas. More than 2,500 children, most of whom arrived unaccompanied at the border, are currently being kept theredue largely to a controversial Trump administration policy change that has made it more difficult to release the minors to adult sponsors.
Beto tweeted:
There are 1,300 kids ready to leave to live with sponsors who have already been identified. But these children remain at Tornillo each day because this administration has deliberately prolonged the process of releasing them.
ORourke called for the type of widespread activism that earlier this year helped force the administration to end its policy of separating migrant families who enter the country illegally. The public pressure that you brought to bear after Fathers Day that ended the practice of family separationwe need that same pressure again, brought to bear on this administration, to close Tornillo, ORourke said.
Joining ORourke were Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). Merkley and ORourke are both considering running for president in 2020.