Beto O’Rourke visits immigrant detention center: 'I can only imagine the terror they felt'

Congressman Beto O’Rourke recently visited McAllen, Texas to witness first hand the separations of families under Trump's new "zero-tolerance" policy.

See the U.S.-Mexico border wall over the years Congressman Beto O’Rourke recently visited McAllen, Texas to witness first hand the separations of families under Trump's new "zero-tolerance" policy.

See the U.S.-Mexico border wall over the years Photo: Carolyn Kaster, STF / Associated Press Photo: Carolyn Kaster, STF / Associated Press Image 1 of / 47 Caption Close Beto O’Rourke visits immigrant detention center: 'I can only imagine the terror they felt' 1 / 47 Back to Gallery

El Paso congressman and Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke traveled to Texas' border on Tuesday to witness firsthand the separation of families under the Trump administration.

In a video detailing his day in McAllen, O'Rourke said he met with a mother and her 7-year-old daughter in custody at one of the nation's busiest border patrol stations.

"Within the next, perhaps, 24 hours they were going to be separated and I don't know that [the] mother and her child knew that at the time," O'Rourke said.

According to O'Rourke, the duo traveled 2,000 miles from Honduras before turning themselves in to a border patrol agent.

During their meeting, O'Rourke said the image that stuck in his mind the most was the young girl gripping her mother's hand as tightly as possible.

LATEST: Texas border agents tell migrant moms they'll bathe their kids. Instead, they separate them.

"The mom was just desperate, she could not help but cry the entire time she was talking with us," he said. "She was anxious, she didn't know what was next, she had just survived this many weeks journey ..."

Enough is enough. We are the wealthiest, most powerful nation. Now taking kids from their parents and turning our back to asylum seekers. This requires immediate action. I'm going to the border to get answers and confront this head on. I know that we are better than this. — Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) June 11, 2018

O'Rourke also toured a migrant processing center where parents had already been separated from their children.

"They were in essentially very large cages, pods, cyclone fences 10-feet high with netting on the top," he said. "Polished concrete floors, it's just a gigantic warehouse where hundreds of kids and adults are kept divided by age, families no longer together."

Despite the conditions he saw, O'Rourke said border patrol agents were "doing their best" and noted that the facility was "spotless." He said detainees had access to television, meals and laundry services.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images A girl from Central America rests on thermal blankets at a...

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by...

FOX INTERVIEW: Dan Patrick compares separating immigrant families to child protective services

Lastly, O'Rourke visited an immigration detention center run by a private prison corporation.

There, he met with a man who fled violence in Honduras with his 12-year-old daughter.

"He was crying the entire time," O'Rourke said of their meeting.

The Honduran man told O'Rourke that prior to his separation from his daughter he was given no explanation as to what was going to happen to her.

"As the father of an 11-year-old and a 9-year-old and a 7-year-old," O'Rourke said, "I can only imagine the terror that they felt and the fear that they have — even right now — not knowing where the other is."

The practice of separating migrant families began in April when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new "zero-tolerance" policy prosecuting 100 percent of illegal border crossings.

SALARY REVEALED: What running detention centers for immigrant children pays

"If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law," Sessions said announcing the new policy. "If you don't like that, then don't smuggle children over our border."

Roughly 10,000 migrant children are currently in custody, according to a headcount by the Department of Health and Human Services in May.

Last week, the controversial policy caught the attention of the United Nations with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights calling the separations an "arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life" and a practice that "runs counter to human rights standards and principles."

Fernando.ramirez@chron.com

Twitter.com/fernramirez93