Senator Jeff Merkley shared the incident on Facebook live Sunday from Brownsville, Texas.
The Oregon Democrat said he went to a facility that houses immigrant children but was refused entry to the site.
Police were then called and the senator was told to leave.
The facility is an old Walmart location that is run by a private nonprofit company that operates 27 shelters in Texas, Arizona and California.
Merkley’s trip to the U.S.-Mexico border comes after a recent Trump administration policy change.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last month that every person caught crossing the border illegally will be referred for federal prosecution, even those with valid asylum claims.
That means parents are separated from their children at the border and sent to different facilities.
Merkley called it “cruel treatment.”
The senator says he hopes to hold Congressional hearings on the matter.
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