A pregnant Mexican migrant was allowed to make her asylum claim after Sen. Ron Wyden Ronald (Ron) Lee WydenHillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns On The Money: Anxious Democrats push for vote on COVID-19 aid | Pelosi, Mnuchin ready to restart talks | Weekly jobless claims increase | Senate treads close to shutdown deadline Democratic senators ask inspector general to investigate IRS use of location tracking service MORE (D-Ore.) intervened and spoke with U.S. Customers and Border Protection (CBP) officials, the senator said.

Wyden visited a shelter with asylum seekers in Juárez, Mexico, where he met the pregnant woman and her family. The woman, who he and reports did not identify, is more than eight months pregnant and facing severe complications endangering her life and the life of her unborn child.

“They immediately packed all their belongings and headed up for the border to make sure she could get in the U.S. and get the medical care they needed,” Wyden said in a tweeted video recalling the experience.

While across the border, I met a young woman who was seeking refuge in the U.S., who was more than 8 months pregnant. pic.twitter.com/kkRoPXvDrK — Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) July 27, 2019

She was told by customs officials “things were filled up” and there was “no way she could get in,” Wyden said.

“When they found out I was a United States Senator and that we had a pediatrician with us, they changed their tune,” Wyden said. “Now that individual is going to be able to get the medical care that she so desperately needs.”

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The Washington Post reports the woman Wyden helped gain asylum was accompanied by her husband and 3-year-old son. ADVERTISEMENT

Along with his visit to the shelter in Juárez, where migrants wait for six months before their US. immigration court hearing, Wyden toured CBP detention facilities, the paper reports.

“These policies that I’ve seen are not what America is about. And in fact what we saw with respect to the woman who is here today is just a blatant violation of U.S. law,” Wyden told the Post, referring to the pregnant woman.

Wyden told the paper he believes the family would have been turned away if he had not intervened.

A CBP official told The Hill "CBP officers processed the group for entry when their Mexican citizenship was established.”

A CBP spokesman told the Post the officer would not have told the family that asylum processing was at capacity if they had said they were Mexican and the mother was pregnant. However, the paper reports the family gave the officer a folder that contained their Mexican birth certificates and identification.

Metering is used to cap the number of people allowed to apply for asylum at ports of entry; Shaw Drake, the policy director American Civil Liberties Union Border Rights Center told the Post Mexicans are exempt from the rule.

Drake told the paper he has seen CPB agents turn Mexican asylum seekers away before.

Updated: 3:36 p.m.