{"id":7578,"date":"2019-07-01T23:55:09","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T06:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=7578"},"modified":"2019-07-02T04:46:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T11:46:28","slug":"post1-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=7578","title":{"rendered":"“\u2018It Feels Like a Jail\u2019: Lawmakers Criticize Migrant Holding Sites on Border”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emily Cochrane, July 1, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

CLINT, Tex. \u2014 Women held in rooms without running water, sleeping bags set up on concrete and children left apart from their families: That was what Democratic lawmakers said they heard about on Monday as they toured two Texas border facilities.<\/p>\n

Their emotional, and graphic, descriptions came on a day when ProPublica reported<\/a> the existence of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. Posts on the group\u2019s page included jokes about migrants\u2019 deaths, obscene GIFs and doctored images of Hispanic lawmakers, the report said. Some of the most offensive posts were directed at Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York.<\/p>\n

\"Representative<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York walking through demonstrators on Monday in Clint, Tex.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Credit<\/span>Adria Malcolm for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Monday\u2019s visit to the border by more than a dozen members of Congress \u2014 including Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Representative Veronica Escobar of Texas \u2014 was a specific focus of some of the abuse on Facebook, ProPublica reported. One post used vulgar language to encourage agents to \u201churl a \u2018burrito\u2019\u201d at the two women.<\/p>\n

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez fired back at the group on Monday night in a series of tweets<\/a> describing the visit. \u201cThese officers felt brazen in there,\u201d she said, pointing out that members of the congressional delegation were asked to surrender their phones before the visit. \u201cWhile mgmt was telling us it was a \u2018secure facility\u2019 where *members of Congress* had to check their phones, we caught officers trying to sneak photos, laughing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n