Many current and former border officials have ripped into Alenadira Ocasio-Cortez’s claims about conditions at the border.
Much of it stems from apparatus in those facilities that have a sink attached to a toilet. Also, you can see from other pictures that the people seem to well taken care of – sure in cramped conditions but all seemed to have blankets, clothes, and food.
From Fox News: Current and former immigration officials pushed back Tuesday at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s high-profile accusations of cruel treatment at an El Paso border station, rejecting her claim that agents forced detainees to “drink out of the toilets” and insisting that their personnel “don’t treat people that way.”
Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., traveled to the border on Monday with almost a dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as she blasted border officials as “violent” and “inhumane” — while claiming agents forced migrant women and children being detained in cells to drink toilet water.
“They are not drinking out of the toilet—no Border Patrol agent is going to make anyone drink out of the toilet,” former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Tom Homan said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Tuesday. “It’s just ridiculous on its face.”
Homan alleged that Ocasio-Cortez was “clearly, intentionally misinforming the American public.”
“She’s lost all credibility,” he said.
Homan suggested she was simply referring to the “apparatus” in holding cells that has an attached sink and toilet, but two separate water lines.
“You’re drinking out of the same apparatus, the same piece of equipment, but there are two separate water lines—one going to the commode, one going to the sink,” Homan explained. “… [T]hey are designed that way to try to save space and make it more comfortable for the people who are in those facilities.”
Images of that “apparatus” were circulating on social media as Ocasio-Cortez critics challenged her account.
Ocasio-Cortez, though, maintained that while she did see the combination toilet-sink facilities, the station had only one of them, and the sink portion wasn’t working.
“So the women were told they could drink out of the bowl,” she tweeted.
Homan acknowledged that the facilities “are jails” and “were not built for women and children,” saying that’s why agents have been “begging” Congress for more funding for beds “so these families can be moved into a proper facility with proper care.”
Former acting ICE director Ron Vitiello also pushed back on Ocasio-Cortez’s claims.
“I have never seen anything like that,” Vitiello said on “Fox & Friends.” “And look, she was there for three minutes and now she’s an expert on what this facility looks like?”
Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement operations at U.S. Border Patrol, similarly defended the agents.
“We don’t treat people that way. We provide fresh water. We provide food. We provide sanitary items as well as items for bathing and personal hygiene,” Hastings said on Fox News’ “The Story” Monday night.
