Congresswomen slam Trump's detention camps: ‘Worse than we ever could have imagined’
‘If you want water, just drink from a toilet,’ a border patrol agent told one thirsty woman, according to Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA).
The Trump administration is detaining people in concrete cells with no running water — and border patrol agents are telling them to drink from a toilet, several congresswomen reported Monday after visiting one of the Trump administration’s detention facilities in Texas.
More than a dozen members of Congress were led on a visit to two facilities, organized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Several members who visited used social media to express their outrage at the conditions.
“There’s abuse in these facilities,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said after one of the visits. “These women were being told by CBP officers to drink out of the toilet.”
In a video uploaded to Twitter, Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) recounted a similar story and shared her thoughts after visiting one of the facilities near El Paso.
“One woman said that the border patrol agent told her if she wanted water, just drink from a toilet,” Chu said. She also mentioned the breaking news about a shocking secret Facebook group of Customs and Border Protection agents, where posters suggested throwing burritos at the visiting congressional delegation and shared a vulgar image of Ocasio-Cortez.
“If they have these kind of derogatory feelings about us, you can only imagine what they’re thinking about these detainees,” Chu said. “These are the ones who are in charge of them. Well, there seriously needs to be some change.”
“The conditions are far worse than we ever could have imagined,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) wrote on Twitter after visiting one facility. “15 women in their 50s- 60s sleeping in a small concrete cell, no running water. Weeks without showers. All of them separated from their families.”
“This is a human rights crisis,” Dean added.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) called the experience “devastating.”
“We can’t just focus on the children anymore. I met grandmothers, mothers and fathers who are suffering,” Tlaib wrote. “This is devastating. The look in one father’s eyes broke me. I can’t look away.”
Prior to the congressional visit, the horrific conditions in child detention facilities made national and international headlines. One doctor compared the detention camps to “torture facilities” after children told her about their persistent hunger and inability to sleep on cold concrete floors with the lights on.
Trump is already infamous for treating immigrants horribly and separating children from their parents. The deplorable conditions in border facilities is yet another example of the Trump administration’s racist cruelty.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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