Tester answers questions on migrant detention, climate change, congressional gridlock at town hall

The treatment of children and families detained along the southern border was top of mind for Montanans who came to a town hall held by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in Helena on Tuesday.

Tester, a Democrat who was reelected to his third term in the U.S. Senate last fall, spoke to more than 100 people over a largely audience-driven hour, where questions ranged from conditions in detention facilities and the climate crisis to gridlock in Congress, for which Tester placed blame squarely on Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"It's not what we're about as a country," Tester said of children who are separated from their parents after entering the country along the southern border.

Tester's comments come following a visit this week from other lawmakers to a detention center in Clint, Texas, where they found a woman who said she was told to drink from a toilet in the absence of clean running water.

Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/tester-answers-questions-on-migrant-detention-climate-change-congressional-gridlock/article_03e1e1dc-ff6d-54de-b13c-fca84a87583e.html