EL PASO, Texas (AP) - The Latest on a visit by US Senators to an immigrant holding facility in Texas (all times local):
1:40 p.m.
Three U.S. senators say a holding facility for immigrant children on the Texas border near El Paso is occupied by about 250 teenage boys mostly from Central America.
A contractor that operates the facility 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of El Paso briefed U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut on Friday without letting the lawmakers enter holding areas or speak with detained minors.
The senators were told that most of the detained children arrived at the U.S. border unaccompanied by parents, though some were separated from family by U.S. authorities.
The senators say it is costing about $2,000 a day to care for each youth at the facility. They were shown a video of the captive teenagers playing soccer.
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10:30 a.m.
New Mexico’s Democratic Senate delegation is traveling to Texas’ border with Mexico to learn more about a holding facility for immigrant children and visit border crossing points that receive immigrants seeking asylum.
U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich were scheduled to arrive Friday at a cluster of fenced-off tents on the outskirts of El Paso, where an undisclosed number of minors are being held.
The facility and others like it are a focus of concern amid confusion over President Donald Trump’s order to stop separating migrant children from families detained while crossing into the U.S. illegally.
Group prayers and protests took place Thursday evening at a church in El Paso as two women described being separated from their children as they sought asylum in the U.S.
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