Instead of Being Horrified By Migrant Detention Centers, Pence Is ‘Inspired’ By CBP
Vice President Mike Pence accompanied Lindsey Graham and other Republican senators on a tour of two migrant detention centers in Texas on Friday in an effort to downplay the horrifying conditions that thousands of migrants—including children—are being held in.
At the first center, in Donna, TX, things went mostly according to plan. According to The Washington Post, facilities at that location were only two months old. About 800 people were detained there, while the site has a capacity for 1,000, according to NBC News.
After the first tour, Pence said he “couldn’t be more impressed with the compassionate work that our Customs and Border Protection are doing here at this border facility.”
At the second facility, in McAllen, TX, things were a little different. According to the Post, the vice president “saw nearly 400 men crammed behind caged fences with not enough room for them all to lie down on the concrete ground. There were no mats or pillows for those who found the space to rest. A stench from body odor hung stale in the air.”
Pence noticed the smell. He tilted his head back and folded his arms in a defensive posture. He listened as a Border Patrol official, fidgeting with his own hands, described the situation. A group of men packed like sardines behind a chain-link fence shouted, “No showers! No showers!” Pence quickly left.
The vice president’s goal, at Donald Trump’s behest, was to discard the testimony of people like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers, lawyers, and human rights advocates, who have likened conditions at border detention facilities to those of concentration camps.
On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez did something unusual by insisting that she be sworn in before testifying before the House Oversight Committee about her visits to border detention facilities. She did this so that Republicans couldn’t continue to accuse her of lying about the deplorable conditions, including detained migrants being told to drink toilet water.
In McAllen, Pence refuted the use by Ocasio-Cortez and others of the term “concentration camps” to describe migrant detention facilities.
In response to what he had seen, heard, and smelled, Pence said, “I was not surprised by what I saw,” the Post reported. “I knew we’d see a system that was overwhelmed.”