Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke poses for a photo with supporters following a campaign rally, Friday, June 28, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic presidential candidate Beto ORourke is heading to Mexico on Sunday to meet with immigrants seeking U.S. asylum but turned away at the border.
In the former congressmans first international trip as a White House hopeful, his campaign says ORourke will visit Ciudad Juarez, across the Rio Grande from his native El Paso, Texas, to meet with what it calls individuals and families directly impacted by Donald Trumps cruel and inhumane policies.
ORourke hopes 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 theyve been turned away from our borders. That includes meeting with people and organizations providing immigrants care and assistance in Mexico.
ORourke blames those being forced to wait on the Trump administrations unlawful Remain in Mexico program, which has allowed the United States to return thousands of Central Americans to Mexican border cities as they wait to hear about their asylum claims. It is meant to reduce the attractiveness of U.S. asylum requests that in the past had allowed claimants to remain in the U.S. for years as their cases wound their way through the courts.
Praising his hometown as part of the worlds largest binational community with Juarez is a centerpiece of ORourkes presidential campaign, and he released a sweeping immigration plan in May calling for providing millions of people in the country illegally with a pathway to U.S. citizenship, while deploying thousands of lawyers to the border to help process asylum cases and earmarking $5 billion to improve living conditions in the Central American countries many immigrants are fleeing.
ORourke has long argued that his border roots make immigration an issue of strength for him, and heading to Mexico may allow him to show off that expertise amid once-promising polling numbers that have flagged in recent months. During the first presidential primary debate in Miami, last week, however, ORourke clashed with fellow Texan and presidential candidate Julian Castro, who chided the ex-congressman for not being willing to decriminalize crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
In all of the debate around immigration, we cant forget who it impacts most: the people traveling thousands of miles, fleeing the worst kind of violence and oppression, ORourke said in a statement late Saturday. Turning away refugees, families and asylum seekers is not who we are as a country. But as long as Donald Trump is president it will be.
ORourke is also planning a rally Sunday outside the U.S. Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas, near El Paso, where immigrant children have reported being denied access to such basic amenities as showers, soap and toothbrushes. Castro visited that facility Saturday.
ORourke also previously traveled to centers holding immigrant children in Houston, and was one of many Democratic presidential candidates to visit one in Homestead, Florida, near the Miami debate site.
A frequent visitor to Juarez before he began running for president in March, ORourke was there in December to meet with immigrants staying in shelters as they waited to begin being processed for U.S. asylum.
Poster Comment:
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