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Vice President Mike Pence visited a border patrol facility in Texas after reports indicate that detained migrants are being held in dangerous conditions.
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WASHINGTON – In the Texas summer heat, Vice President Mike Pence and reporters entered the border patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, and gave Americans an idea of ​​the stench, overcrowded halls and shouting. of men at the center of a political storm.

Access is severely limited at these sites, which makes it difficult to assess the conditions in which migrants are found at border patrol stations, government-run detention centers and detention centers. 39, private accommodation.

A border patrol facility in Clint, Texas, made the headlines that after a group of lawyers who had spent time had made their findings public. The reports of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security also revealed a dangerous overpopulation and complaints of detainees in several detention centers hosting migrants.

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But overall, it has been difficult for members of the public, the media and even Congress to fully assess the conditions, making the visit to Pence all the more important than it is. gave reporters – and thus the Americans – a glimpse of what was happening. inside these facilities, which are at the heart of the current debate on immigration.

Pence visited two facilities on Friday. The first is a Border Patrol Detention Center for single adults in McAllen and another is an air-conditioned family and children's tent complex in Donna, Texas. This is what Pence has experienced.

"The stench was horrible"

A journalist who witnessed the visit to Pence's facilities reported jarring details of life in detention centers.

Many men inside the McAllen center had not showered for weeks and the air conditioning did not seem to have much effect in keeping Texas warm.

"The stench was horrible," Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey said when he entered the school.

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Nearly 400 men were crammed into closed rooms in a building with white brick walls and high ceilings. Some men slept on concrete without pillows or mattresses. The men had no beds, they told reporters, because there was not enough room for everyone to go to bed. Instead, they received thin covers of Mylar, which reporters heard cracking in the room, reflecting the lighting of the facility. In addition, 275 women were lodged outside in air-conditioned tents, reused by the army.

Inside McAllen Institution, men shouted to reporters that they had been in the facility for 40 days or so and that they had not been able to take a shower, that they were hungry and that they wanted to brush their teeth.

"No shower, no shower," shouted the men amid a cacophony of resonant voices, according to a NBC video. Agents wearing masks protected the cages. We see Pence, dressed in a dark blazer and buttoned shirt, looking at the group, arms crossed. Beside him are the Republican Sense. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., And Mike Lee, in Utah, both silently looking across the barrier separating them from the migrants.

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Michael Banks, the patrol officer responsible for the situation in McAllen, told reporters that no one had been on the scene for more than 32 days.

Banks have challenged some of the descriptions of migrants. According to him, the men of the establishment were allowed to brush their teeth once a day, because it had "88 000 toothbrushes". Banks added that some had not showered for 10 or 20 days and that the installation was showered in tow on Thursday.

The Pence office claimed that he did not have a sugar-coated version of the facilities.

"The vice president's office has specifically asked CBP not to clean or disinfect the facility beyond routine so that the American people can see how serious the crisis at the border is (overcrowding, lack of resources , of beds). "

Pence said at a press conference later on Friday: "I knew we would see an overwhelmed system," and added, "It's a difficult subject." He also called on the Democrats to fund more beds in the facilities.

"Strangely calm"

Earlier in the day, Pence visited another facility, a 40,000 square foot white vinyl tent, located in the border town of Donna, Texas, where approximately 800 migrants were arrested. The facility has the capacity to accommodate 1000 people.

"It was strangely quiet." The main noises were the crackling of the blankets and the occasional laughter or moans of a small child – snacks were sometimes scattered on the floor, "Dawsey said.

The tent was divided into four 8,000-square-foot modules that resembled a high school gymnasium with a rock-patterned linoleum floor. There was also room for processing admission requests and toilets with showers and laundry facilities. Each module has been designed to handle up to 125 beds. Officials said the modules would have plastic dividers about 4 feet tall to provide some privacy. No fence was to be erected inside the complex, officials said.

The Donna tent has been designed so that apprehended immigrants stay there for up to 72 hours in the custody of the Border Patrol. Most had to go in and out within 48 hours, officials said.

But while there, the migrants had to be fed and examined for medical purposes, they could shower in one of the 36 individual stands – 18 for men and 18 for women – and have access to chemical toilets that will be serviced at least once a day. receive a change of whitened clothes and sleep in upholstered beds of about 2.5 feet by 6.5 feet.

The journalists were guided to a room in the school where they saw young children and their parents lying on the floor. The children told Pence that they were walking from Central American country for two or three months. Some young children, all under the age of 8, were sitting on a bench in front of a television watching a Spanish cartoon and eating snacks. An officer was monitoring the room from a guard tower structure above.

Pence tweeted his own photos showing him with a group of kids sitting at a white table with snacks. Behind him and the second lady, Karen Pence, a young child sitting on a metal bench and mats covered with mylar blankets.

In an interview with CNN, Pence defended border patrol officers while trying to differentiate between the two facilities.

"What you saw today is a very clean facility where people were detained inside, and then you saw a temporary facility built because this facility is overcrowded," he said. . "We can not keep people in a cell beyond what the rules and regulations allow, but everyone, even in this temporary facility, receives three meals a day, receives health care, benefits from health care, and helps them get better. a hygiene ".

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In a tweet late Friday, Pence again declared that the border crisis "overwhelmed" the immigration system.

"To show this, we also visited an overcrowded adult male facility, many of which were arrested several times," he said. "These men were in a temporary detention area because congressional Democrats refused to fund additional beds."

Contributor: Michael Collins

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