Thread by @TexasTribune

1/ A high-ranking U.S. border official refused to allow American citizens to enter the country on Friday, sending them back to Piedras Negras, Mexico.

Then, Mexican authorities threatened to arrest them.

bit.ly/2GOimAk

2/ Their crime? Escorting a 15-year-old Salvadoran boy — left alone after his single mom died — to the midway point of an international bridge so he could seek asylum in Eagle Pass, Texas. bit.ly/2GOimAk

3/ The Americans are researchers at the University of Texas at Austin — @Sleutert and two of her associates from the university. bit.ly/2GOimAk

@Sleutert 4/ Leutert and her colleagues said Mexican officials repeatedly told them that they had “committed a crime” and would be arrested for human smuggling for helping the boy. They said he had no right to be in Mexico and would be taken into their custody. bit.ly/2GOimAk

@Sleutert 5/ Then, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervisor whose last name was Fuller arrived. With the Mexican guards present and under threat of detainment, Leutert asked Fuller: “Are you going to let them arrest us for human smuggling?”

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@Sleutert 6/ “I’m not going to let you in,” Fuller told her, all three researchers recall. “They are taking you back to Mexico.”

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@Sleutert 7/ Leutert won’t soon forget what one of the Mexican security guards told her on the walk back to Mexico, where they were told they would be arrested.

“Things have changed under Trump. The United States just denied entry to American citizens.”

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@Sleutert 8/ When they heard Leutert and her colleagues were refused entry, organizations jumped in to help, including the office of U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

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@Sleutert 9/ After that, the Americans made a second attempt to walk towards the U.S. with the Salvadoran teen.

This time, CBP officers took him into custody and processed his asylum claim instead of sending him and the American researchers back to Mexico.

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@Sleutert 10/ The researchers re-entered the U.S., where the director of the Eagle Pass port of entry told them it was “instilled” in every CBP agent to let unaccompanied children enter the port “without problem.”

“We bend over backwards here for these kids.”

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@Sleutert 11/11 Read the full story: bit.ly/2GOimAk