Maine Senate Candidate Arrested Outside Texas Migrant Facility
A Maine candidate for a U.S. Senate seat has been arrested in Texas after trying to deliver items to children being held in a migrant detention camp.
Zac Ringelstein of Yarmouth, who's running for the senate seat currently occupied by Senator Angus King, was seen on a Facebook live video on his campaign Facebook page being taken away in handcuffs from the back of a pickup truck. He had been sitting on the rear gate of the truck, which was loaded with toys, water, and books that he'd hoped to deliver to the children being held in the camp.
A Border Patrol agent is seen on the video explaining to the Mainer that he could take the donations to Catholic Charities, who would then distribute them to the kids. Ringlestein insisted that he wanted to tour the facility and was told that it was not within the agents power to allow that.
After much discussion, the Border Patrol agent walks away and law enforcement officers are seen handcuffing Ringlestein and a bystander, who had joined him on the pickup's tailgate, and taking them away in a cruiser. There's no word, as yet, on what charges they will face.
Emotions have run high, nationwide, over the detention of migrants on the Mexican border. Here in Maine, Governor Paul LePage has made the controversial decision to send a National Guard helicopter and two pilots to Arizona to help the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. You can offer your opinion on the Governor's decision a poll we posted on Thursday.