New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she observed a pattern of "systemic cruelty" at detention centers for migrants during a trip to a facility in Texas on Monday, accusing Border Patrol officers of holding women in cells with no running water and instructing them to drink out of toilets.
The freshman Democrat, a vocal critic of the Trump administration's hardline immigration agenda, made the stunning accusations after visiting a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) station in El Paso with a group of other Democratic lawmakers.
"This has been horrifying so far. It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. "We're talking systemic cruelty (with) a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals."
She said CBP officers laughed at members of Congress during the visit to the El Paso facility. According to the congresswoman, one migrant woman told her that officers waged "psychological warfare" against the detainees by waking them up at "odd hours for no reason" and calling them profanities.
"'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.
CBP, which oversees Border Patrol officers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the congresswoman's allegations.
The congressional visit came hours after ProPublica revealed that members of a private Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol officers made insensitive commentsabout the deaths of migrants and posted sexist jokes about Latina lawmakers. Among the posts were vulgar illustrations portraying Ocasio-Cortez engaging in sexual acts with President Trump and a detained migrant, according to ProPublica.
CBP said it has opened an internal investigation and informed the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general of the report. Border Patrol chief Carla Provost called the social media posts "inappropriate" and contrary to the values of her agency. "Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable," she added.
After her visit to the CBP station in El Paso, Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were slated to visit the Border Patrol facility at Clint, in the outskirts of El Paso. The station there has come under severe scrutiny after independent monitors reported learning of unsanitary, crowded — and what one lawyer called "inhumane" — living conditions for detained migrant children.
According to the attorneys who inspected the facility, older children were taking care of the younger ones. Some young mothers had to wear clothes stained with breast milk. The children also did not have access to soap and toothbrushes, and most had not showered since they crossed the southern border.