Clint, TX – Migrants held at a border patrol station in Texas were being kept in “horrifying” conditions that included psychological abuse and being told to drink out of toilets, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said after a visit to the facility with other U.S. lawmakers on Monday.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
A delegation of lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were touring the border patrol facilities following reports from a government watchdog that immigrants were being housed in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.
First-term Democratic Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter after leaving the main border patrol station in El Paso that she had seen women in cells with no water who had been told to drink out of toilets.
“After I forced myself into a cell w/ women&began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as “psychological warfare,” she wrote.
“This has been horrifying so far.”
Reuters could not independently confirm her account. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees Border Patrol, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on her statements.
Conditions at U.S. facilities holding migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border have become a flashpoint in recent weeks after an internal government watchdog warned of “dangerous overcrowding” at the El Paso facility in May. In June, immigration lawyers raised alarms over squalid conditions facing hundreds of children at another facility in Clint, Texas. The lawmakers visited both Texas facilities on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his administration, but officials say a renewed crush of mostly Central Americans arriving at the border has strained resources.
FACEBOOK GROUP
The Border Patrol also came under fire on Monday following a report by the non-profit news site ProPublica that said offensive content had been posted on a private Facebook group for current and former CBP officers. Posts included jokes about the deaths of migrants and sexually explicit comments referencing Ocasio-Cortez, a representative from New York, the news outlet reported.
After leaving the El Paso facility, Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet, “I see why CBP officers were being so physically & sexually threatening towards me,” an apparent reference to the Facebook group.
CBP condemned the Facebook group and acknowledged that it may include a number of the agency’s employees.
Matthew Klein, Assistant Commissioner of CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility, called the social media activity “disturbing” and said it violated the agency’s code of conduct. Klein said the matter had been referred to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general, which has jurisdiction over the CBP.
According to a screen shot published by ProPublica, the Facebook group had 9,500 members.
“These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see – and expect – from our agents day in and day out. Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable,” U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said in a statement.
Border Patrol agents have expressed their own concerns about conditions at facilities, according to documents published Monday from the DHS Inspector General that supported the watchdog’s May report.
The documents revealed U.S. agents feared riots by migrants being held in overcrowded and unsanitary cells and were “embarrassed” and “frustrated” by the detainees’ conditions at El Paso.
The documents https://bit.ly/2XgmO5b were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from website MuckRock and first reported by NBC News on Monday. They showed DHS inspectors had found on a May 7 visit https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-border/government-watchdog-finds-dangerous-overcrowding-at-u-s-border-facility-idUSKCN1T12GI that more than half of the 756 immigrants being held at the El Paso facility were kept outside, and those inside were in cells packed at five times their capacity.
Border Patrol agents “remained armed in the holding areas because of their concerns with the overcrowding that potentially could result in volatile situations,” the documents revealed. Government inspectors saw migrants standing on toilets because there was not enough room in cells and other examples of unsanitary conditions leading to concerns about illness among the agents, the documents said.
CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the documents. The U.S. government responded to the report in a letter to the watchdog included in the supporting documents. The situation “represents an acute and worsening crisis” and the surging numbers of migrants were overwhelming the agencies, the letter said.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in a statement on Monday he would be traveling to El Salvador for a two-day visit to discuss “the root causes of irregular migration” and would meet with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez in Honduras.
He traveled to Guatemala last week for meetings that included discussions of a “third safe country” agreement, which could potentially limit who could apply for asylum in the United States.
Toilets? That’s better conditions than where they came from.
Only one word for this Bulls..t.
Just like Trump is going extreme right and stating statements that are not factual. She is trying to do the same on the left.
That’s the same stuff she served her bar customers
drop dead b….h
Hey Acosta is this a crisis yet or not yet? Didn’t you see the president made up that it’s a crisis?
Let them stay where they came from. They don’t belong here. Period.
We can’t afford everyone here.
Sorry dems.
She will say anything to keep her 180K a year job with benefits and pension. The more outrageous the more relevant she is to her base.
Eight Amendment:” “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
No, they shouldn’t come here illegally but once they’re in custody, we can’t do things like not provide water.
AOC should’ve gone to Hollywood. There she’d be in great company and by now have snagged an academy award for her great acting skills. Nobody is drinking toilet water. They have space saving sinks built atop toilet tanks with clean drinking water. Better conditions than the migrants had in their country of origin that they’re escaping. And it’s the likes of this phony lefty that created the problem to begin with, by blocking Trump’s every attempt to quell this influx of illegal trespassers. Get lost, AOC. You’re full of it.
aoc should go to hollywood the walk would do her good. Maybe she could drop dead in the desert. Even buzzard won’t eat her stink en corps
Absolutely shocking to see orthodox jews have no compassion for these immigrants, the vast majority of which are families, women and children. Regardless of your politics, regardless of why they came here, at the end of the day, they are in our care. And your response to not providing water is “then you should not have come here”? Absolutely despicable in every way shape and form.
Imagine, just for a moment, the USA a different place. Imagine a corrupt government and police force, with gangs and shootings on every corner. Imagine extreme poverty and no help. So you do what any family would do, you take your children and bring them somewhere for a better life. You beg for help and instead, your children are taken from you, and your are tossed in a cement cell with 30 other people, told to drink from a toilet bowl and allowed one shower a month.
Where is your compassion, where is your empathy? Jews of all people should be able to sympathize with those that are desperate. Instead, we see comments like “go back where you came from” and “not my problem”. A complete and total boosha. If there is a god, if there is an olam haboh, you are all in very big trouble
Shouldn’t she be occupied with what’s going on in the district that elected her?