Watch: Border Patrol Sets AOC Straight with Video Tour of Detention Facility
Democratic socialist New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s visits to two migrant detention centers in Texas would have made for a good comedy if the material wasn’t so grim.
One of those facilities — the one in Clint, Texas, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention — had a very troubled June.
Accusations of inhumane conditions led to 249 children being moved from the facility, only for 100 of them to be moved back in just days later.
To show that conditions weren’t inhumane, the Border Patrol invited politicians and journalists, among others, to tour that facility and another in El Paso.
Ocasio-Cortez’s behavior during and after her visit to those facilities was both darkly hilarious and embarrassing.
She claimed the officers at the El Paso facility had made her feel threatened.
“In that last facility, I was not safe from the officers in that facility,” she told CNN.
It later came out that the real threat may have been Ocasio-Cortez.
“She comes out screaming at our agents, right at the beginning [of the tour] … Crying and screaming and yelling,” a witness said, according to reports.
And then there was the commode claim heard ’round the media.
The New York Democrat said women had told her they were “put in a room with no running water. And these women were being told by [Customs and Border Protection] officers to drink out of the toilet.”
“They were drinking water out of the toilet.”
She also tweeted about it, just in case you didn’t get the message:
Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities.
It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress.
I brought it up to their superiors. They said “officers are under stress & act out sometimes.” No accountability.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
Not that there was any corroboration here. None was needed; Ocasio-Cortez had vouchsafed this was true — even though she wasn’t willing to say she had actually witnessed it — so it was obviously true.
As a rejoinder, Customs and Border Protection posted a video tour of a facility in Arizona.
You may not be surprised to discover there was no footage of anyone drinking out of toilets.
Granted, this wasn’t a tour of the facilities in Clint or El Paso; this instead took place inside a facility in CBP’s Tuscon Sector, in Arizona.
However, the tour showed adequate supplies — including soap, diapers, clothing and the like.
In the video, published Wednesday, Roy Villareal — the chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector — said he was trying to “dispel some of the misinformation” that’s been going around.
Here is a look at the inside of a #BorderPatrol processing center with Chief Patrol Agent of #TucsonSector Roy Villareal @CBP pic.twitter.com/vu1dyV72Uz
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) July 4, 2019
It was pretty clear what — or rather, whose — information he was talking about.
For instance, he noted that “aliens are not forced to drink out of the toilet.”
As Villareal picked up a cup and walked into the bathroom, he said the drinking water myth was “the biggest [piece of] misinformation” being put out there.
Instead, he noted detainees had drinking water and water coolers available to them; he drank out of the sink to show that the water was potable.
And yes — they also have toothbrushes and soap, among other supplies.
Now, are conditions ideal? Of course not.
The Department of Homeland Security doesn’t have the resources necessary to handle the current border crisis, and Democrats aren’t likely to dole that kind of money out simply because they don’t believe in the concept of detention.
One only needed to watch the Democratic presidential debate last Thursday, when eight out of 10 candidates on stage indicated they would decriminalize illegal immigration.
However, we don’t have a situation where people are being forced to drink out of toilets by CBP.
To suggest otherwise — without witnessing it for oneself — is beyond irresponsible.
It’s so bad it’s almost comical. But only almost.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
