Sen. Bob Casey: Deported Mother, 5-Year-Old Son In Danger In Honduras
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Those who follow U.S. Senator Bob Casey on Twitter were surprised when the normally laconic senator erupted in a tweet storm.
Over forty tweets in all, beginning with this one – "Twitter -- it's urgent."
Twitter: it's urgent. I just found out that a young child & her mother who came to U.S. seeking refuge will be sent back to Honduras today.
— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) May 3, 2017
Casey urged the Trump administration to stop the deportation of a Honduran refugee and her five-year-old child from Berks County, Pennsylvania.
"This mother witnessed a murder," said Casey.
Fearing she'd be killed to be silenced, the woman fled to the United States in 2015.
"She's going to go back into that very dangerous circumstance. Her life could be threatened and the life of her child. There's no reason why the administration, Homeland Security, couldn't come up with a better solution here," said the senator.
Casey tweeted the woman's story, saying he'd talk to White House chief of staff Reince Preibus, warning they could be killed, but the order to put the family on a plane back to Honduras still stood.
His last tweet after the deportation: "Shame on Trump, Preibus, Homeland Security secretary and ICE director for turning their back on this child and his mother. They should be better than this."
In a Thursday afternoon telephone call, Casey said denounced deporting people who are not a risk to national security.
"First quarter, January to March, the number of arrests of immigrants with no criminal records, no criminal records, has more than doubled," said Casey.
KDKA political editor Jon Delano asked Casey about the value of public officials tweeting.
"It's one way to get a message out, and sometimes in the most expeditious fashion," said the senator.
Casey acknowledged help from his staff.
"Jon, I'd say a combination. I'm not going to assert that I craft every word of every tweet, but I certainly work on them. We work on them together."
And even if the tweets did not prevent the deportation, Casey said he wasn't giving up, hoping to get the Hondurans asylum.
"We're going to try, but I can't predict the outcome."
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