Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim joined more than a dozen mayors from across the country for a protest Thursday at the U.S. border in Texas.

Ganim and 19 other mayors, including New York City's Bill de Blasio, protested outside a federal detention facility near El Paso, Texas. The mayors, representing both Democrats and Republicans, demanded that the Trump administration immediately reunite children separated from their parents. Trump ended the separation program Wednesday with an executive order, but that only applies to new arrivals.

"They are citizens, individuals, that we need to fight for, to raise our voices for," Ganim said. "We turned on a dime to be here, to hopefully have an impact."

The mayors were turned away when they tried to see the conditions inside the detention center.

As recently as Wednesday, Ganim had an event scheduled in Bridgeport. He was added to the list of mayors making the trip at the last minute.

News 12 is told that as many as five children are being held in Connecticut, with more possibly on the way.

A spokeswoman for Ganim said the trip had nothing to do with his run for Connecticut governor. City taxpayers spent $1,400 on the trip, but the mayor's office says Bridgeport gets more out of the mayor's conference than it spends.