rumitoid

New images of children and adults in “dangerously” overcrowded US border patrol facilities in Texas have been released as part of a report from government auditors.

The congressional House oversight committee announced on Tuesday it will hold a hearing next week on the treatment of migrants held in detention facilities at the southern border after a series of reports of poor treatment.

Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings has said the Trump administration has displayed “open contempt” of “basic human decency” in its treatment of migrants.

The report released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General warns that facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas face “dangerous overcrowding” and require “immediate attention”.

One image shows a man squashed in a crowd pressing a cardboard sign to a cell window with the word “help” written on it. He is one of 88 men in a cell meant for 41.

“During the week of June 10, 2019, we traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and again observed serious overcrowding and prolonged detention in border patrol facilities requiring immediate attention,” the report says. A previous report issued in May had also warned about “dangerous overcrowding” at facilities in the El Paso facilities.

In one photo from the new report, women and children can be seen sleeping on the floor with only Mylar blankets for cover. Several people are wearing surgical masks.

In one facility, the auditors found “some single adults were held in standing room only conditions for a week and at another, some single adults were held more than a month in overcrowded cells”. The auditors say the report seeks to draw attention to “urgent issues that require immediate attention and action”.

DHS has blamed the surge of families crossing the border for straining its capacity. But reports of filthy conditions in some facilities have sparked outrage.

The report comes a day after several members of Congress toured a migrant detention center in Texas. The Democratic New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the conditions they witnessed as “horrifying”.

She posted on Twitter that the “officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets” and said one woman “described their treatment at the hands of officers as ‘psychological warfare’ – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc. Tell me what about that is due to a ‘lack of funding?’”

The Democratic Texas congressman Joaquín Castro says he released video and photos of migrant women being held at a border facility in his state so the public could better understand “awful” conditions under Donald Trump’s policies.

tbutkovich

Who’s to blame for the astronomical numbers, the Democrats who refuse to pass much needed bills to discourage the immigrants from trying to gain illegal access to our country. They have a choice, simply turn around and go home. Illegal are entitled to only one thing, it’s called “Jail Time.” If you thing that’s cruel try going across the DMZ into Korea or cross the border of Ukraine into Russia. You. Are so ignorant, your pathetic!

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

President Trump asked for help,Border Agents asked for help...But Dems said its manufactured crisis and would not help....I also blame Republicans when we had both House and the Senate..they didnt help either...They all should be fired!!!..ALL OF THEM!!!

Rose42

Yet there seems to be no outrage from you for the rampant homelessness and abundance of garbage in the streets in democrat controlled cities like LA and San Francisco. The over 2000 unborn children k**led per day. But that can't be laid at Trump's feet so there's no outrage.

Looks like more crocodile tears to me.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Reality

All they have to do is walk out the door back to where they care from. This is all a sickness to get to women’s feelings so they’ll join the women cause and scream, “The Poor Children”. In reality, it’s an invasion plain and simple. New v**ers who will v**e the way they are told, for the most part and they will be told by democrats, aka republic h**ers, that they will get free stuff. The free stuff thing is really true. It’s unbelievable but yet it’s right in our faces and people born right here are onboard too.

rumitoid

US and International Law are meant to recognize asylum-seekers. Processing them, instead of caging them, is what these laws demand. Improving that system and sending more judges to handle the situation is the answer. Not Zero-tolerance!

Liberty Tree

They are not asylum seekers. That is a ruse they are taught to say just to manipulate their way into the country.

rumitoid

Are those a different topic? To voice one complaint about something being unjust means I must address all instances of injustice? I have a leak in the plumbing: must I tell the plumber about my electrical problem so as not to seem prejudicial?

We can't stick to a single topic of discussion and discuss it civilly without baseless charges of hypocrisy for not commenting on all wrongs in society? Give it a break. If you do not want to comment on the subject as presented, just ignore it or say no comment. The misdirection to preserve the President's policies is repulsive.

Show some evidence in a thread you created, or I will, about "rampant homelessness and abundance of garbage in the streets in democrat controlled cities like LA and San Francisco." And I have made my position abundantly clear in threads and responses how I feel about a******n; so do not use that nonsense to attack me.

tbutkovich

Most are not coming for asylum, they are coming for the widely publicized “free lunch” offered by the Democrats without even asking how the American people perceive the issue. To support this fiasco, they levy taxes on all American’s. This is taxation without representation. Our colonists went to war over inappropriate taxation. You use the term “asylum” loosely. You are a facsimile of your Democrat leadership, who say “To hell with the “American People”, we are going to facilitate the lawbreaking i*****l a***ns at all costs. We will welcome them, feed them, clothe them, provide healthcare, legal assistance, provide diapers, place an unwanted and unnecessary burden on the taxpayers, teachers, health care providers, and communities and ignore the wants and needs of the American People!

rumitoid

Really? You know this for certain how? Are you aware of the horrendous conditions in Central America? You can unquestioningly say none of the migrants fleeing from drug gangs and corrupt regimes in their countries is in real mortal or physical danger to themselves or family? Swear!

rumitoid

Jesus said the same thing: Welcome them! It is worth the sacrifice to be humane, always, like the Good Samaritan.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

People who come to America are always fleeing from something..My family was fleeing from religious prosecution,but we did the right way...These people need to apply in their country and wait their turn like we did!!!...PERIOD!!!

rumitoid

Like the Jews who made the mistake of boarding a ship of fools fleeing N**i Germany and expected, instead of waiting their turn which would have meant death, to get asylum. In a long tradition of “persecuting the refugee,” the State Department and FDR claimed that Jewish immigrants could threaten national security. Sounds much like Trump today concerning Mexicans.

World War II prompted the largest displacement of human beings the world has ever seen—although today's refugee crisis is starting to approach its unprecedented scale. But even with millions of European Jews displaced from their homes, the United States had a poor track record offering asylum. Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Oh give it a rest,Rumi!!!!!!!!...This is not the same and you know it!!!!..Most of them are not fleeing from violence,they are coming here for better jobs...Its NOT the same thing!!!