CBP border chiefs refute AOC detention center claims
Democrats push for open border policies; Todd Piro reports.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said she agreed with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., about the conditions of detention centers along the U.S.-Mexico border and claimed AOC was right to compare them to Nazi concentration camps.
Ocasio-Cortez compared the facilities to concentration camps during a June livestream, saying: "That is exactly what they are. They are concentration camps." Her comments drew backlash from Holocaust survivors and several members of her own party. She then repeated her remarks in a tweet last Tuesday.
Tlaib appeared on ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday and doubled down on AOC's sentiments, regarding the federal government's alleged mistreatment of illegal immigrants.
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"Absolutely [I agree]. There are a number of experts who say -- because it's traumatic. I mean, I don’t know how to explain to people what we saw," she said. "When we’re explaining to people and they're kind of looking back and saying, well that can’t be true. I said, but we were all there ... We saw what we saw and we heard from the folks that were in the facilities, and some of them have not seen their children since being there.
"What you need to also know is -- do you know the mere touch, the mere, even me holding the hand, broke them down in tears. That tells you they’re under a lot of trauma, that they are in a facility that is dehumanizing. And, you know, this is a choice by the current administration. They are choosing to not allow asylum seekers to go through the legal process."
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Martha Raddatz cut off Tlaib and challenged her assessment, saying the Trump administration has been requesting migrant aid for months. She also asked Tlaib why she voted against the $4.6 billion bipartisan aid package, which passed in both the House and Senate before President Trump signed it into law.
Tlaib said it was a waste of money to bolster a flawed system and claimed unnamed border agents pulled her aside during her visit and agreed with her.
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"Listen to this, do you know what the CPB agents said on the ground? ... Ask a CBP agent. That's the one thing -- I can talk to the [Homeland Security] secretary and he can say, throw more money at a broken system, an inhumane system -- three agents took me aside, away from my colleagues and said, more money is not going to fix this, that they were not trained to separate children, that they don't want to separate two-year-olds away from their mothers.
"That’s not what they were trained for. That’s not what they signed up for in their service to our country. They signed up to protect the border, not to separate children, not to put people in cages. They all said, this is a broken system ... They all don’t want to be doing this. They all know this is a choice," she said.
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