Earlier this week, a group of Democratic members of Congress toured a migrant detention center on the U.S. border with Mexico. The conditions they found there were abhorrent, to say the least.
Among the Democrats who toured the facility, was outspoken Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who described the visit as “unconscionable,” stating:
‘No child should ever be separated from their parent. No child should ever be separated from their family. No woman should ever be locked up in a pen when they have done no harm to another human being.
‘They should be given water. They should be given basic access to human rights.’
She also told CNN that she was “not safe” from the officers in the facility she visited, and tweeted:
Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities.
It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress.
I brought it up to their superiors. They said “officers are under stress & act out sometimes.” No accountability.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019
Later, in an interview with Yahoo News, when asked if she thought we were headed towards fascism, Ocasio-Cortez answered:
‘Are we headed to fascism? Yes. I don’t think there’s a question.
‘If you actually take the time to study, and to look at the steps, and to see how government transforms under authoritarian regimes, and look at the political decisions and patterns of this president, the answer is yes.’
Last month, Ocasio-Cortez sparked outrage when she compared these migrant facilities to concentration camps during the Holocaust, with many saying that she was “trivializing” the Nazi concentration camps because these modern facilities where asylum seekers are being held at the border are nothing like them. Numerous Holocaust survivors and scholars, on the other hand, said that her comparison is right on.
Ocasio-Cortez is a fighter, though, and refused to back down from that backlash, telling Yahoo News that many things about our so-called “president” echo that dark, fascist period in time.
Is she wrong? I don’t think so.
She goes on to berate the “horrible Democrats” who voted for a bill to provide $4.5 billion in funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP, when the monetary funds should be going to improving these facilities, and said she blames the “president” for this entire situation.
‘This is completely engineered by him.’
Featured image via screenshot
