‘Systemic Cruelty’ and ‘A Dehumanizing Culture That Treats Them Like Animals’
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of Congress are visiting several federal government migrant facilities in Texas and tweeting out what she’s seeing.
“Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress,” AOC said in one tweet.
Her remarks come just hours after ProPublica reported on a secret Facebook group of 9500 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers where they “joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.”
She echoed her remarks to reporters:
“It’s not just the kids,” she continues. “It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress.”
One of the women, she says, called it “psychological warfare.”
She calls conditions and treatment “horrifying,” and adds: “We’re talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals.”