HARTFORD, CT — Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who is running for governor, traveled Wednesday to Texas on the city’s dime to attend a press conference outside the Tornillo Migrant Children’s Facility.
Ganim, a member of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was one of 19 mayor’s to protest family separations at the border.
“This is a cruel and inhumane way to treat families and children. These children have been traumatized by the loss of their family, and their parents have been disenfranchised. They have all become the voiceless persons in our country,” Ganim said. “Using children as pawns to force Congress to fund a border wall is cruel and immoral. As leaders and mayors we need to raise our voices to speak for them and do everything we can to stop these ruthless actions and policies.”
The trip cost taxpayers of Bridgeport $1,400.
Ganim was expected to return to Connecticut Thursday.
The quick trip will likely be criticized as a publicity stunt, even though the mayor’s office said it has nothing to do with his run for governor. His gubernatorial campaign promoted news coverage of the trip on its Twitter page.
Locally Ganim has steered Bridgeport away from the designation of sanctuary city and has been less critical of President Donald Trump than most Democrats. Ganim knows Trump from his time trying to build a casino in Bridgeport in the early 1990s.