Activists use kids as immigration protest props at Sen. Susan Collins' offices

Activists who believe Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins hasn't done enough to address detention conditions for asylum seekers and their children brought their own kids to her offices to protest, according to The Hill.

The protests were organized by Mainers for Accountable Leadership. Protesters showed up to several of Collins' offices across the state to pressure her into doing more about the crisis at the border.

The children of Maine can not tolerate the concentration camps and call for the ending of them and the stoping of policies that separate children from their family. #shutthecamps pic.twitter.com/LWX5D7ztEC

— Mainers for Accountable Leadership (@mfalpac) July 3, 2019

"After over a year of asking for an end to this policy it is clear that Senator Collins, who has been thanked by Trump for her cooperation and who voted to confirm [former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen], the architect of this program, is complicit and responsible for the harm done to the families who came to our country to seek asylum," said director Marie Follayttar. 

Collins' communications director Annie Clark defended the senator's record on immigration.

"Senator Collins has been appalled by reports about the conditions many children have been experiencing in custody at the border, including a lack of basic personal hygiene products like soap and toothpaste, and she has heard from many Mainers who share her concern," Clark told The Hill. "As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she voted to advance an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to address the border crisis, which passed by an overwhelming, bipartisan majority and was signed into law this week."

Not good enough, Follaytter said.

"She believes she can appropriate away a humanitarian crisis and an immigration policy she is unwilling to take action and change. Words are not enough," Follayter said.

Immigrant detention facilities are dealing with increasingly overcrowded conditions as asylum-seeking migrants continue to flow into the United States. President Donald Trump's position has remained consistent, saying that the migrants should stop coming to the U.S. 

If Illegal Immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2019