Durkan to travel to border to join other mayors protesting family separations



SEATTLE -- Mayor Jenny Durkan will leave Wednesday for the U.S.-Mexico border to join a bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors group calling for the Trump administration "to reverse its inhumane treatment of immigrant families," the mayor's office said Tuesday.

President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy separates children from parents after illegal border crossings and puts the children in holding centers, where they have no communication with their parents or even other siblings.

“As a mother, it is unconscionable that our country is allowing children to be literally torn out of the arms of their mothers,” Durkan said in a news release. “There is no way to justify the policies and actions of this administration -- they continue to misrepresent the law, leaving families devastated and children traumatized. The world is watching, bearing witness to this inhumane and un-American policy. We cannot stand by without taking action.”

The mayor's office said Durkan will depart Wednesday and return on Thursday afternoon.

Q13 News will be providing coverage of Durkan's trip, with Brandi Kruse reporting from the scene. 

Columbia, S.C., Mayor Steve Benjamin will lead the delegation of nine to 10 mayors to the Tornillo (Texas) Port of Entry on Thursday morning, where the mayors will hold a news conference at 8 a.m. PDT.

In addition to Benjamin and Durkan, others are to include: