TORNILLO, Texas (CN) – About 2,000 people spent Father’s Day in the tiny Texas town of Tornillo chanting and marching against the opening of the first temporary shelter for immigrant children separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy.
U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, and former El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar led Sunday’s protest at the port of entry in Tornillo, about a half mile away from where large, white temporary tents have been set up in the scalding desert, yards from the border fence, to house hundreds of children who illegally crossed the border, many with their parents.
Protesters carried signs that read “children are not illegal” and “zero tolerance is torture” as they walked on the side of road in the dirt towards the port’s entrance in the dry, 90-degree heat.
The last-minute event was spurred by the Department of Health and Human Services’ confirmation last Thursday that the quiet community of just more than 1,500 people, located about 40 miles southeast of El Paso, would shelter immigrant children separated from their parents. There were more protesters than residents in Tornillo on Sunday.
O’Rourke said he started organizing the march Friday afternoon.
The Democratic congressman, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, told reporters that more than 200 teenage boys are currently housed in the tents.
A spokesperson for HHS said last week that the shelter would house 360 children, but O’Rourke said there’s a possibility that it will eventually have as many as 4,000 beds.
“This is inhumane. This is cruel. This is torture to take a child from that mother, from that father, who literally risked all, including their lives, to bring them to safety, fleeing horrific violence,” O’Rourke said.
About 20 percent of the children at the Tornillo shelter have been taken from their parents after entering the U.S., while the rest are unaccompanied minors, according to O’Rourke.
Several Democratic politicians from Texas attended the march, including gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez and Texas state Representatives Mary Gonzàlez, Joe Moody, César Blanco and Lina Ortega.
U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., was the only out-of-state politician to attend. Kennedy, grandson of the late Robert Kennedy, told the crowd that the U.S. should embrace immigrants who are fleeing from desperate conditions.
“We recognize that universal truth that humanity does not come with citizenship or with a green card,” Kennedy said.
U.S. Representative Will Hurd, a Republican whose district includes Tonillo, visited the shelter late Friday night. He told Texas Monthly that the tents were air-conditioned and the children had access to medical services and caseworkers, but said he was disappointed with the situation.
"If, in order to address our broken immigration system, we’re using children as a deterrent, then we have a problem," Hurd said.
The need for additional shelter space has come in part from the federal government’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings, which was announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April, following a 37 percent increase in illegal border crossings in March.