Horrifying. That’s the word Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) used to describe conditions at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in El Paso during a July 1 visit by several Congressional members.
“After I forced myself into a cell with women and began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as ‘psychological warfare’–waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them who*res, etc,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted out shortly after her visit. “This has been horrifying so far.”
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) who was also part of the Congressional delegation, was also mortified at the concentration camp-conditions of the facility.
“I will never forget the image of being in a cell and seeing 15 women, tears coming down heir faces as they talked about being separated from their children, about having no running water, and about not being able to know when they were going to get out since they had already been there 50 days,” Chu said, according to this Reuters story. “A woman talked about being an epileptic and not having access to any medicine.”
At roughly the same time as the Congressional visit, ProPublica reported that 9,500 ICE agents were members of a secret racist and misogynist Facebook group. “In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas,” ProPublica reported. “One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, ‘Oh well.’ Another responded with an image and the words ‘If he dies, he dies.’”
Today, July 2, there will be a Day of Action event (it’s part of Moveon.org’s #ClosetheCamps effort) at Laguna Main Beach to protest all of this.
“These conditions are the product of a punitive, cruel, intentional strategy by the current administration to terrorize immigrant communities, criminalize immigration, and dismantle our asylum laws,” said organizer Barbara McMurray in a July 1 news release. “From imprisoning children in inhumane detention centers, threatening widespread raids to break up families, and covering up reports of migrants dying in U.S. custody, we must come together to permanently end family detention and separation, ensure all families are reunited, and close the camps.”
The protest will start at 11:30 a.m. and go to 1 p.m. Tim Burns of the Orange County Justice Fund will speak at the event. The Fund runs an immigrant bond fund that has, so far, freed 14 people from ICE detention and reunited them with their families. Pastor Rodrick Echols of Neighborhood Congregational Church will also speak.
Those attending are welcome to bring signs or use the pre-printed placards that will be available. There will also be postcards to send to legislators. Children are welcome. To sign up, go to MoveOn.org. For follow-up actions, text CAMPS to 668-366.
Anthony Pignataro has been a journalist since 1996. He spent a dozen years as Editor of MauiTime, the last alt weekly in Hawaii. He also wrote three trashy novels about Maui, which were published by Event Horizon Press. But he got his start at OC Weekly, and returned to the paper in 2019 as a Staff Writer.