Democrats Warn Trump Against Diverting Funds For The Wall

The prototypes for U.S. President Donald Trump's border wall are seen behind the border fence between Mexico and the United States, in Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 7, 2019. VOA

Democrats in Congress say a wall would be expensive, inefficient and immoral.

In New Mexico, Border Patrol agents walked the Congressional delegation through the holding areas of the Alamogordo station, which Representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, said were "miraculously" empty.

Castro said the Border Patrol did not provide a report about Gomez's death nor did they tour the hospital where he was treated for a cold and then released with a prescription for antibiotics and ibuprofen. The boy died shortly after his release.

"We know that CBP is woefully under equipped in terms of its standards of medical care, but we also need to find out whether the doctors in the hospital – how responsible they were in terms of that case," Castro said.

The Border Patrol itself has said their facilities are not properly equipped to hold families, Castro said. "I think all of us who look at what they have here believe that that is true."

U.S. Representative Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from El Paso, said the area where Gomez and his father turned themselves over to Border Patrol is on American soil and already fenced.

"The wall only pushes people out to more dangerous, treacherous crossings, creating even more death," she said.

Also Read: Will Not Bend in Wall Funding Demand: Donald Trump

Illegal crossings at the southern border have dropped dramatically since the late 1970s, but in recent years more Central American families and unaccompanied children are migrating to the United States. Many are released after turning themselves into border agents and requesting asylum, a legal process that can take years to resolve in U.S. immigration courts. (VOA)