Remember when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pulled a ridiculous publicity stunt when he visited the border during the family separation controversy? Now, he's being accused of illegally crossing the border to do so.
The Associated Press obtained a letter from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection accusing de Blasio of violating Mexican and U.S. immigration laws.
De Blasio visited the border on June 21, just one day after President Trump signed an executive order stopping family separations at the border. But this didn’t stop de Blasio from virtue signaling, and a video of him attempting to talk to a border agent went viral.
According to the letter, de Blasio was denied entry into an immigrant facility. The mayor then reportedly illegally crossed the border with his NYPD-led security team into Mexico and back into the U.S., just to get a better view of the same facility that rejected him.
The letter details how a border agent saw de Blasio and his security team at the Rio Grande River flood plain, despite never being granted access to the area. The agent asked how they got there, and the group allegedly pointed towards Mexico.
De Blasio’s group was then instructed to see the agent’s supervisor, but ignored the request and went back into Mexico.
Eric Phillips, a spokesperson for de Blasio, denied the allegations.
“The mayor crossed the border with the direct approval and under the supervision of the border patrol supervisor at this port of entry,” Phillips wrote in an email to the AP. “Any suggestion otherwise is a flat-out lie and an obvious attempt by someone to attack the Mayor because of his advocacy for families being ripped apart at the border by the Trump Administration.”
Personally, I think de Blasio should own up to the illegal border crossing. Wouldn’t that earn him street-cred with his fellow progressives?