U.S. Senate candidate Zak Ringelstein was was released after posting a $1,000 bond early Saturday morning.
Ringelstein was arrested Friday outside of a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, after blocking access to a detention facility.
According to Ringelstein, the facility was holding immigrant children separated from their parents.
Ringelstein's campaign promoted his visit to Texas on social media, which said he would travel there to deliver blankets, food and toys to children detained at the border and to request access to a holding facility in the city of McAllen.
The campaign livestreamed the exchange as Ringelstein sat on the tailgate of a pickup truck loaded with supplies blocking one of the entrances to the detention facility.
U.S Border Patrol agents and local police gathered after he repeatedly refused to move the truck.
"I refuse, I refuse, I refuse to stand by as you imprison children and bring more children by the dozens into this facility ... it is wrong. It is sick. It's a sickness,” Ringelstein said.
A supervisor told Ringelstein that the U.S. Border Patrol could not legally accept his supplies, but that he could deliver them to one of the charitable organizations authorized to assist detained children.
Ringelstein also asked for access to the detention facility, but was denied.
After debating with the supervisor for a few minutes, Ringelstein and another man who joined him on the tailgate of the truck were arrested by McAllen police and were told that the truck of supplies would be impounded.
Ringelstein is a democrat running against independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, who has sharply criticized the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.
After he was arrested, Ringelstein's campaign tweeted that he was "now a prisoner of the Trump regime."
Zak is now a political prisoner of the Trump regime. #FreeZak #mepolitics #resist
— Zak Ringelstein (@RingZak) June 22, 2018
On Saturday, police in McAllen, Texas, said Ringelstein was charged with criminal trespassing, a class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and as much as six months in jail.
According to Ringelstein's Twitter account, he was released after posting a $1,000 bond early Saturday morning.
Updated at 3:15 p.m. ET, June 24, 2018.
