"It's hard": at the Texas Detention Center, Pence sees hundreds of migrants crammed without beds



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When Vice President Pence visited a migrant detention center on Friday, he saw nearly 400 men crammed behind caged fences, with no room to lie on the floor. There were no mattresses or pillows for those who found space to rest. A nauseous odor due to a body odor floated in the air.

When the reporters visited the premises before Pence, the men shouted that they had been detained for 40 days or more. They said that they were hungry and that they wanted to brush their teeth. It was very hot, but there was only water on the outside of the fences and they had to ask the border patrol for permission to drink.

Pence on Friday visited two immigration detention centers with Republican senators to defend the administration against the migrant crisis following reports of inhumane conditions at the scene.

The first center he visited, while it was neither home nor comfortable, was only two months old, was cleaner and allowed Pence to paint a darker picture the treatment of migrants detained by the federal government. But it was much more difficult for Pence to deny what he had seen at the second installation. Instead, he described these conditions as the result of the immigration border crisis that the administration has been warning for months.

"I was not surprised by what I saw," Pence said later at a press conference. "I knew we would have seen an outdated system."

He added, "These are difficult things."

The vice-president's office told border patrol officers not to clean or sanitize facilities beyond routine, so that the American people would be aware of overcrowding and lack of resources, such as lack of beds, and the severity of the crisis. border.

Pence said the difficult conditions were the reason the administration had recently requested and that Congress approved $ 4.6 billion in aid for the border. He said he would urge congressional Democrats to fund more beds.

Pence's visit was the latest initiative of the two political parties to use border travel to argue their case for the responsibility for the border crisis caused by the increasing number of Central American migrants and measures to be taken to remedy this. Republicans accused the Democrats of not committing to legal changes to the asylum system that would facilitate the management of the flow of migrants while Democrats blamed Trump's policy and ruthless rhetoric that would worsen the situation.

The political struggle around the border will only intensify as both parties prepare for the 2020 presidential race, where immigration will be one of the biggest problems.

Border authorities sought to counter some of the men's claims in the second facility visited by Pence.

Michael Banks, McAllen's patrol officer in charge of the facilities, said the men there were allowed to brush once a day and get a deodorant after the shower. But he conceded that many men had not showered for 10 or 20 days because the installation did not have a shower before.

There were no beds to sleep on, because there was no place, Banks said. Instead, they each receive a mylar blanket. He added that they also received three hot meals a day, along with juices and crackers.

After visiting the first installation, Pence described a much better situation than the one mentioned by the Democrats and the media. He said that President Trump wanted to see him with surveillance cameras to see for himself how people were treated.

"Every family that I spoke to said that we cared for them well, which is different from the hard rhetoric we hear from Capitol Hill," Pence said. "Customs and Border Protection is doing its best to provide compassionate care in a way that the American people would expect."

Pence visited the cavernous facilities built in May to treat overpopulation, where 800 people live. Most were lying on napts of children's garden covered with a thin cover of aluminum foil. In another room, children under 8 were sitting in front of a television and watching a Spanish animated film.

Pence asked the children if they had food and if they were taken care of. They all nodded and some answered "if". Some children shook their heads when asked if they had a place to "clean up".

While Pence was visiting the facilities, a House committee had a controversial and partisan debate in Washington over how migrants were treated. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) asked to be sworn in when she appeared as a witness before the panel to show that she was telling the truth when she told the story. story of a migrant woman who had said that she had to drink water from the toilet because her sink was broken.

Representative Chip Roy (R-Tex.) Accused her of playing with her millions of followers on Twitter.

Some Democrats have described detention centers as "concentration camps" and claim that the US government has children in "cages". Several children died after crossing the border and placed under federal custody.

Pence said it was heartbreaking to hear children who had walked two or three months to come to America and cross the border illegally, but he finally blamed Congress for not having passed legislation that would deal with the influx of migrants to the southern border.

Republicans responded to Democrats' criticism of the detention center, saying they were unfairly offending border officials who were doing their best under difficult conditions because of the influx of migrants into Central America.

Pence sought to convey this message during his trip here, saying, "I could not be more impressed" by the work done by customs and border protection officers.

Pence visited the facilities with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including President Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). Democrats refused the invitation. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan was also present.

On Friday, Trump said that he had sent Pence on a trip to counter what he had described as "false" stories about the state of the Democrats and the media while defending agents working in detention centers.

"These people – I tell you what – have been with ICE and many with Border Patrol," Trump told the press before leaving for a trip to Wisconsin and Ohio. "They like these people crossing the border. They love them and I have seen them. They love them. "

Itkowitz reported from Washington.

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