A liberal super PAC demonstrated outside President Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, playing audio released by ProPublica of crying children inside detention facilities through a loudspeaker.
American Bridge tweeted Tuesday that the activists were targeting attendees of a fundraiser for Republicans taking place at the Trump International Hotel in the capital.
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“Tonight, we make sure that @realDonaldTrump and his rich cronies hear the impact of his cruel, heartless policies,” the group tweeted.
“As they enter the Trump Hotel in DC for a fundraiser, we’ll be outside playing the @ProPublica audio of migrant children being ripped apart from their families.”
Reporters outside the hotel spotted former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who was recently named to the pro-Trump PAC America First Action, entering the building. Donald Trump Jr. was also spotted leaving the hotel.
Trump himself was reportedly at the hotel on Tuesday night following his meeting on Capitol Hill.
ProPublica published the audio Monday, in which workers are heard attempting to gather information from children in Spanish as they cry out for family members. Through tears, the children repeatedly ask for their “mami” and “papa.”
“Well we have an orchestra here, right? What we’re missing is a conductor,” one border patrol agent is heard joking through the children’s cries.
The audio quickly went viral, and was played by reporters in the White House briefing room waiting for press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to arrive on Monday afternoon.
At the White House briefing on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the “zero tolerance” policy for prosecuting immigrants at the border, calling on Congress to fix the issue through legislation.
“This entire crisis, just to be clear, is not new,” Nielsen said. “Currently, it is the exclusive product of loopholes in our federal immigration laws that prevent illegal immigrant minors and family members from being detained and removed to their home countries.”
“Congress and the courts created this system, and Congress alone can fix it,” she added.