Brahm Resnik

KPNX-TV, Phoenix

PHOENIX — Arizona Rep. Adam Kwasman had just raced to Phoenix from a protest in Oracle on Tuesday over the expected arrival of dozens of migrant children at a shelter.

He tweeted from the scene, "Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abrogation of the rule of law." He included a photo of the back of a yellow school bus.

Kwasman later said he saw the migrant children. "I was actually able to see some of the children in the buses. The fear on their faces.... This is not compassion," he said.

But there was a problem with Kwasman's story: The children on the bus were not migrants, but students from the Marana school district, and there was no fear on their faces. The bus was heading to the YMCA's Triangle Y Camp, not far from the Rite of Passage shelter for the migrants, at the base of Mt. Lemmon.

KPNX-TV reporter Will Pitts, who was at the protest scene, says he saw the children laughing and taking pictures of the media.

When Kwasman, who is also running in the 1st Congressional District GOP primary, was told the identity of the children, he later deleted the tweet. He also back-pedaled on his earlier account.

While the campers showed up, the bus that Kwasman and other protesters were waiting for -- packed with migrant children -- did not arrive, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.