Merkley, other Dems don’t want tent city’s contract renewed

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Jeff Merkley and three other Democratic members of Congress have toured a remote tent city in West Texas where they say 2,700 immigrant teens are being held at a cost of roughly $1 million per day.

The lawmakers on Saturday urged the nonprofit running the facility not to renew a federal contract that expires at the end of the year. That would effectively shutter the facility, which was supposed to be temporary but is expanding and taking on a permanent feel.

O’Rourke has been mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential candidate after nearly upsetting Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in deep-red Texas. Merkley also has said he is considering a run for president.

But he didn’t mention White House aspirations after visiting Tornillo with Merkley, Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Tina Smith of Minnesota, and California Rep. Judy Chu.

In a series of tweets, Merkley thanked demonstrators who joined the lawmakers on Saturday, saying, “We all need to stand up and expose this unconscionable humanitarian crisis.”

The senator said officials at the “child prison camp … refused our request to speak with the children who are held there.”

“The vast majority of these children have parents or other family members who are ready to sponsor them in the US,” Merkley wrote, “but the Trump Administration has deliberately created a bottleneck so that it’s difficult for the children to be released.”

“They’re also threatening to hand over any undocumented family members to ICE, discouraging sponsors from coming forward,” the senator added. “So thousands of children are living in a tent prison. In the desert. For months on end, (in) temporary structures (that) are intended for emergencies like hurricanes and natural disasters.”