Detained migrants told to drink toilet water, US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says, amid outcry over secret border agent Facebook group
- US Customs and Border Protection opens investigation into group where officers reportedly shared lewd or racist posts about Ocasio-Cortez and migrants
- Congresswoman says she spoke to women in cells who said agents waged ‘psychological warfare’ on them, waking them at odd hours and calling them names
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused US border agents of conducting a programme of “psychological warfare” against detained migrants who were told to drink water from toilets if they were thirsty.
The New York Democrat’s comments on Twitter came amid a report Monday that border agents used a secret Facebook group to share lewd posts about Ocasio-Cortez and at least one other Democratic lawmaker as well as racist comments about migrants.
“Just left the 1st CBP facility. I see why CBP officers were being so physically & sexually threatening towards me. Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, referring to US Customs and Border Protection.
California congresswoman Judy Chu also said on Twitter that migrants were told to drink from the toilet if they wanted water. Pennsylvania congresswoman Madeleine Dean in a tweet called conditions “far worse than we ever could have imagined”.
The lawmakers were taking part in a delegation organised by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to El Paso and Clint, Texas, to investigate facilities used to detain undocumented immigrants.
Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter she “forced” herself into a cell to speak to women, who described “their treatment at the hands of officers as ‘psychological warfare’ – waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc”.