Forced To Drink Toilet Water: House Dems Reveal Horrifying Conditions In Migrant Camps
Migrant women in a detention facility in Texas (Source: Rep. Joaquin Castro)
Updated July 2, 2019
This is a dark period in American history. Today, more than a dozen House Democrats visited U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) migrant detention centers in El Paso, and Clint, Texas. The conditions that they outlined are objectively inhumane, depraved, and unbecoming of the United States or any civilized society who claims to uphold human rights and decency.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) was the first to begin highlighting what she saw. AOC detailed how migrant women were being told to drink toilet water, being called whores by Border Patrol agents, being emotionally abused, and going 15 days without showering.
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.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
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?”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
What’s haunting is that the women I met with today told me in no uncertain terms that they would experience retribution for telling us what they shared.
They all began sobbing – out of fear of being punished, out of sickness, out of desperation, lack of sleep, trauma, despair.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
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Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Chairman of the House Hispanic Caucus, corroborated and expanded upon what AOC detailed.
Here’s what we found:
At the El Paso Border Patrol Station #1, women from Cuba, some grandmothers, crammed into a prison-like cell with one toilet, but no running water to drink from or wash their hands with. Concrete floors, cinder-block walls, steel toilets.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019
Many said they had not bathed for 15 days. Some had been separated from children, some had been held for more than 50 days. Several complained they had not received their medications, including one for epilepsy. Members of Congress comforted them when the women broke down.
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019
Castro managed to get a device in.
Members of Congress had to surrender their phones before today’s CBP trip.
But @JoaquinCastrotx was able to get a device in. This photo is of the women we spoke to.
We asked their permission to photograph – they said yes, please share what’s happening. https://t.co/4ZhOMlEBVA
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
This moment captures what it’s like for women in CBP custody to share a cramped cell—some held for 50 days—for them to be denied showers for up to 15 days and life-saving medication. For some, it also means being separated from their children. This is El Paso Border Station #1. pic.twitter.com/OmCAlGxDt8
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019
Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), and other House Democrats also shared what they saw. NBC News reported that the U.S. government’s own internal watchdog has warned of the conditions at the El Paso facility as far back as May. A federal judge also just ordered CBP to let doctors into child detention centers.
This all came the same day that ProPublica published a truly troubling article that exposed a secret Facebook group for former and current border patrol agents with 9,500 members. In the group, the members joke about migrant deaths, called Latina lawmakers who were set to visit the border “hoes,” posted a sexist meme about AOC, etc. This further exposed the pervasive bigoted culture within the CBP.
Rantt Contributor Rabbi Shaina Bacharach discussed the poor conditions in these migrant centers in her latest article:
Investigators found children taking care of even smaller children. Most of these children haven’t bathed or brushed their teeth in weeks. Sick children were not being treated properly. When they got head lice, guards gave the group two combs to share! People with head lice should not share combs at all —let alone in large groups.
Poor conditions do cause deaths: twenty-four adults in ICE custody; three children in the camps, and two other children at the border. If these conditions persist, we can expect more.
The guards are in uniform, carry arms, and wear face masks. Why face masks? To protect themselves from communicable disease. Couple this with President Trump’s dehumanizing rhetoric and claims that migrants are “infesting” America with disease, and you can see how closely these circumstances are reflective of the past.
To those expressing indignation that many of us compare these detention camps to those of the Nazis, it’s painful to recognize the God-awful truth: these are similar to concentration camps…
It’s important to note that these are asylum seekers who are fleeing violence in their home countries and are trying to enter the country legally. It’s also important to point out some necessary context. The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy, which led to the separation of at least 2,700 migrant children from their parents last year, was one of President Trump’s most controversial actions. The whereabouts of some of these children are still unknown.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Inspector General also released a report indicating thousands of more children were separated beginning when Trump took office. Aside from child separation, the Trump administration’s immigration scandals range from migrant women having miscarriages to migrant children being allegedly sexually abused to the death of migrants at the border (which can be tied to Trump’s policy of metering).
A new CNN poll revealed how Americans feel about these conditions:
About 6 in 10 Americans (62%) say they disapprove of the treatment migrants are receiving at the border, but there’s a steep partisan divide here as well. Democrats are near-unanimous in their disapproval (93% disapprove), and a majority of independents feel the same (60%), but most Republicans (62%) say they approve of the way migrants are being treated by the government after crossing the US-Mexico border.
We have to look ourselves in the mirror and ask if this is the nation we want to be right now. Is this depravity representative of our highest ideals? Are we really going to let a simple-minded, ex-reality TV star put us on the brink of authoritarianism? If the answer is no, here are several ways you can help migrants, including upcoming marches.
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