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Seattle mayor at US-Mexico border to protest family separation policy

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan visited Texas with a coalition of mayors to protest family separations at the border.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan spoke at a press conference in Tornillo, Texas on Thursday protesting the treatment and separation of immigrant families at the border.

"Nothing we are doing today makes our country any safer, and instead it degrades the moral conscious of our country," Durkan said.

Durkan stood alongside a bipartisan delegation of mayors from across the country who traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We are so much better than this, and the promise of America is better than this," Durkan said. "Our collective voices will join…across the country until this problem, this challenge, this moral crisis is resolved."

The group hoped to also tour a detention facility housing children who were separated from their parents. However, when Durkan asked a port security agent if they would be let in to see the facility, they were denied access.

Durkan said she was "disappointed" they were granted access.

"They should be letting us in, but more importantly they should be letting media in to talk to the children, into the facilities to talk to mothers, to hear the real stories," Durkan said. "This is where propaganda starts, when government controls information."

WATCH: Durkan asks agent for detention facility access, is denied

While Durkan made her journey to Texas on Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order to halt the administration's existing policy to remove children from their parents.

"What was signed when we were on the plane not only doesn't go far enough, the exception will swallow the rule," Durkan told KING 5's Michael Crowe in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday. "(The Trump administration) is saying, to the greatest extent possible we want to quit separating parents from kids, but we know those facilities are full and we know they can't keep them in regular detention."

While Durkan pushes back against the government's actions to separate families crossing the border, Seattleites voiced mixed reaction back home.

WATCH: Mixed reaction to Durkan's border trip

Tweets published after her trip announcement were quick to point to Seattle's existing problems and called on the mayor to prioritize the city first.

"I have been working every day on the issues of affordability and homelessness, making sure we deliver basic services. I am still focused on that; it is never off my mind," Durkan said.

Critics also called for Durkan to reveal details about her travel expenses to Texas.

Durkan said her flight and hotel accommodations will be paid for with personal fund, but she was not able to comment on security expenses. A Seattle police spokesperson said they can't comment on executive security details.

Also see l Where your lawmaker stands on family separations at the border

Also see l VERIFY: Families separated at the border in Obama vs. Trump administrations

Durkan's trip to Texas comes two weeks after she introduced a resolution condemning the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy of separating children from the families at border crossings.

“We cannot normalize his behavior. This is not a moment in time. This is a policy that will continue. It will make America less safe. It will continue to have cruel impacts on families and children. The administration has to understand that children can’t be used as bargaining chips," Durkan said.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) unanimously approved Durkan's resolution at their 86th annual meeting.

A statement from the USCM says there are calling "on the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice to immediately reverse these destructive policies and allow families apprehended to remain together to the extent possible, to help avoid the heartbreak and irreversible trauma of forced separation."

On Tuesday, Durkan joined a bipartisan group of former United States Attorneys also urging the Department of Justice to reverse policies.

"As a mother, it is unconscionable that our country is allowing children to be literally torn out of the arms of their mothers," she said.

WATCH: Mayor Durkan explains her mission at US-Mexico border

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