Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro tried leading migrants across America’s southern border this week, only to have his stunt backfire when Customs and Border Protection agents sent them back to Mexico.
The Obama-era secretary of housing and urban development led the migrants across a bridge and into Texas on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The group of twelve migrants appeared to have been hand-picked for their apparent victimhood statuses, consisting of eight gay and lesbian people, as well as a disabled woman and her family.
Those chosen by Castro to cross with him had previously met with customs agents and were instructed to wait in Mexico, the Times reported.
One of the LGBT migrants who followed Castro claimed to have been the target of harassment in Mexico over her sexual orientation, a status that the presidential candidate claims makes her exempt from President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
The stunt provided some much-needed publicity for Castro, who has found himself near the bottom of the crowded field of 2020 Democratic candidates.
According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, he has just 1 percent support nationwide.
Unfortunately for Castro, his march into the United States didn’t end in a groundbreaking victory for seemingly disenfranchised LGBT migrants, but rather with a humiliating defeat by the rule of law.
The Texas Civil Rights Project, a group of lawyers who represented the migrants led by Castro, announced that all 12 of them had been sent back to Mexico by CBP agents in Brownsville.
