Oregon U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio and Suzanne Bonamici visited the U.S. border with Mexico this weekend with members of the Hispanic Congressional caucus.
DeFazio says they walked across the border into Mexico and toured a tent camp of about 25-hundred people in Matamoros. He says the camp is appalling. DeFazio says he was told they did not have any potable water or sanitary facilities until a couple of days before his visit. He says many tents were erected in the mud. And, the area is controlled by Mexican cartels.
“We talked to a woman from El Salvador, who, at night, would sleep outside her tent, even in the rain, so she could lay on the zipper because she had 3 daughters and she was deathly afraid that the cartels would kidnap them and traffic them.”
DeFazio says President Trump’s border policy is inhumane. The administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy was enacted last year. It allows the Department of Homeland Security to return asylum seekers to Mexico to await their court proceedings.