Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claims Border Patrol agents are forcing migrants to drink out of toilets and live under other extreme conditions — while the officers sit back and laugh.
“I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me,” the congresswoman tweeted Monday after leaving a US Customs and Border Protection facility in Texas.
“Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets,” she said. “This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.”
The New York lawmaker was visiting a number of migrant detention centers scattered along the southern border on Monday with other congressional Democrats following reports of terrible conditions and repeated sexual assaults.
“Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress.”
She added, “I brought it up to their superiors. They said ‘officers are under stress & act out sometimes.’ No accountability.”
Ocasio-Cortez claimed that she “forced” herself into a cell with a group of female migrants and 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,” she said. “Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’”
The freshman legislator was planning to visit detention facilities in Clint — where the Trump administration “was denying children toothpaste and soap,” she said.
“This has been horrifying so far,” Ocasio–Cortez concluded. “It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem. We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.”
A CBP official denied the toilet accusations on Monday, insisting that the locations Ocasio-Cortez visited have standard-issue jail-type appliances with sinks that dispense safe drinking water attached to toilets in a single unit.
“‘No one is drinking toilet water,” the official said. “They’re drinking potable water from the sink attached to the toilet.” It’s what you would find in every municipal jail in the United States.”
Ocasio-Cortez has accused CBP agents of making threats to her life on social media — saying a “secret Facebook group” of 9,500 officers discussed making a GoFundMe to harm her and the other Dems during their visits Monday.
“This isn’t about ’a few bad eggs,’” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted early Monday afternoon. “This is a violent culture.”
Rep. Judy Chu, of California, was among the congressional leaders who visited the centers with Ocasio-Cortez and also recounted what she saw on Twitter.
“‘If you want water, just drink from a toilet.’ That’s what border patrol told one thirsty woman we met on today’s #DemsAtTheBorder trip,” Chu tweeted, along with a video in which she described the conditions.
“What we saw was appalling and disgusting,” the congresswoman said. “There seriously has to be some changes.”
Monday’s border visit was met with outrage from local Trump supporters, who were caught on video heckling the Democratic lawmakers in both English and Spanish as they attempted to hold a press conference.
“Go take care of your country!” shouted one man, who repeatedly yelled “Trump 2020” with several others.
“You guys are retarded!” he added. “Cry me a river!”
Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke at the presser, got told to “go back to New York City” at one point.
“Nobody wants you here!” a heckler screamed.
“Did you bring your onion?!” another asked, blasting Ocasio-Cortez for shedding “fake tears.”
Videos from the presser were posted online by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Attempts to reach the group were not immediately successful.
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