Confusion at the Border
In recent days, contradictory claims have been made about border issues, including the living conditions for migrants being housed at U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention facilities:
- Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan claimed that children in CBP custody are receiving “appropriate meals” and showers. But the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office said it visited five facilities and found children at three of them “had no access to showers” and “two facilities had not provided children access to hot meals.”
- Firing back at Kellyanne Conway’s accusation that she is “all talk, no dollars,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said a $4.6 billion emergency aid bill she opposed “wasn’t humanitarian at all.” But it includes money for food, shelter, medical expenses and other aid for migrants and unaccompanied children at the border.
- Four Democratic lawmakers claimed that detainees at CBP facilities told them guards had instructed the detainees to drink water from toilets. Ocasio-Cortez confirmed the toilet was a toilet/sink combination unit but claimed the sink portion wasn’t working.
- Rep. Marc Veasey made the unsubstantiated claim that “about half” of Customs and Border Patrol agents were members of a secret Facebook group page that included offensive posts, but that would assume that all of the page members are current agents. The page is open to former agents as well, and we don’t know if other non-agents may have joined.
The Inspector General’s Report
For months, there has been a rising number of migrants, many of them from Central America, attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. In May, there were apprehended illegally trying to cross the border — the highest number since . On July 1, President Donald Trump a to help CBP cope with the surge
