Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Border Patrol agents were telling migrants in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities to drink out of toilets.
During a Monday visit to CBP facilities in Southern Texas, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “Just left the 1st CBP facility. I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.”
{mosads}The freshman lawmaker was on a trip to visit migrant detention centers with more than a dozen other House members Monday, The Washington Post reported. The trip was organized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and it included stops in El Paso and Clint, Texas.
Ocasio-Cortez also shared that CBP officials said “officers are under stress & act out sometimes.”
She added, “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’ – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’ “
Ocasio-Cortez said she was on the way to Clint on Monday afternoon after visiting facilities in El Paso, which she called “horrifying so far.”
“It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.”
CBP has been under fire for months for the conditions of migrant detention facilities, including not giving children basic sanitary necessities, leaving out rotting food and providing standing room only conditions for migrants in some facilities.