Catholic Bishop Walks Asylum Seekers Across US Mexico Border To 'Protest Trump'
Mark J Seitz walked with migrants across the Lerdo International bridge
© press
A Catholic bishop from Texas walked with Central American migrants across the US-Mexico border bridge to protest the Trump administration.
Mark J Seitz, a Roman Catholic bishop, walked with migrants across the Lerdo International Bridge in El Paso as part of his "Faith Action” protest of against conditions he claims asylum seekers face 'under Trump.'
The Bishop prayed and walked a Honduran family of five across the border bridge to make a claim with Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to the Dallas Morning News.
Bishop Seitz’s protest opposes President Trump's Administration’s immigration policy and the Migrant Protection Protocols.
© press
[RELATED] Italy Deports 1500 Migrants, Bulldozes Refugee Camp
The Migrant Protection Protocols require migrants to wait in Mexico until their claims are processed.
Mexico announced the deployment of 15,000 troops to the US border to block illegal immigrants from entering the Us.
Mexican Secretary of Defense Luis Sandoval confirmed that Mexico is sending thousands of soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to help stop the flood of illegal immigration."
Mexico has deployed almost 15,000 troops to the US-Mexico border to curve migration flow," CNN's Nick Valencia tweeted.
Over 15,000 migrants have been sent back to Mexico while their asylum claims are reviewed.
“As a Catholic and Christian leader on the border, I am often called to be a doctor of the soul,” said Bishop Seitz to reporters in both Spanish and English.
© press
He continued: “Standing here at the U.S.-Mexico border, how do we begin to diagnose the soul of our country?”
“A government and society which view fleeing children and families as threats. A government which treats children in U.S. custody worse than animals.
"A government and society who turn their backs on pregnant mothers, babies, and families and make them wait in Ciudad Juarez without a thought to the crushing consequences on this challenged city.”
The Bishop decried the Migrant Protection Protocols and claimed that in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican town which migrants are forced to return to from El Paso, “there is a critical lack of access to shelter, food, legal aid, and basic services.”
“Every day the U.S. is sending up to 300 asylum seekers to one of the most dangerous places in Mexico with nothing and no one to help them,” he told Crux Now.
“This deserves our attention and all our efforts to change this ill-thought policy.”
“My heart is so moved by this encounter and how much they suffered,” he continued.
“I just want to be able to shed some light about what is happening every day under our noses at the entry to our country.”
Bishop Seitz continued: “This government and this society are not well.”
