Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'This Has Been Horrifying': Lawmakers Report First Hand On Inhumane Conditions Of Immigration Detention Facilities
The New York Times: ‘It Feels Like A Jail’: Lawmakers Criticize Migrant Holding Sites On Border
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. Their emotional, and graphic, descriptions came on a day when ProPublica reported the existence of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. Posts on the group’s page included jokes about migrants’ 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. (Cochrane, 7/1)
Reuters: Ocasio-Cortez Describes 'Horrifying' Conditions At Texas Migrant Facility
Migrants held at a border patrol station in Texas were subjected to psychological abuse and told to drink out of toilets, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said after a visit with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to the main border patrol facility in El Paso. ... "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," Ocasio-Cortez, a first-term New York Democrat, wrote on Twitter after leaving the El Paso border patrol station. (Chavez, 7/1)
BuzzFeed: Women Held In Border Patrol Custody Say They Were Told To Drink Water From Toilets
Rep. Judy Chu from California described what the delegation saw as appalling and disgusting. In addition to some immigrant women telling members of Congress they didn’t have access to running water, one epileptic woman said she been unable to obtain medication for her condition. (Flores, 7/1)
NBC News: Ocasio-Cortez: Detained Migrants Being Told To 'Drink Out Of Toilets'
"We came today and we saw that the system is still broken," said Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, at a press conference after their tour. "These are the conditions that have been created by the Trump administration. These are the inhumane conditions that folks are facing," he said, as he and the other lawmakers were trying to speak above the din of hecklers shouting, "America First!" (Aviles, 7/1)
Bloomberg: Ocasio-Cortez Says Detained Migrants Told To Drink Toilet Water
Ocasio-Cortez was confronted by shouting Trump supporters during a televised press conference in Clint. “No woman should ever be locked up in a pen when they have done no harm to another human being,” she said. “They should be given water and basic access to human rights.” (Wasson, 7/1)
CNN: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrats Shocked By Conditions Following Border Facility Tours
US Border Patrol Chief of Operations Brian Hastings denied the accusations that some immigrants in border detention facilities are forced to drink from toilets. "Drinking out of the toilet is completely untrue," said Hastings. He said there are "ample supplies" and that "a lot of our stations look like Costco." (Alvarez, 7/1)
Axios: Ocasio-Cortez Calls Conditions In Texas Migrant Center "Horrifying"
The lawmakers' visit came as Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed in a statement that 30-year-old Yimi Alexis Balderramos-Torres from Honduras died in hospital Sunday while in the agency's custody. He was found unresponsive at the Houston Contract Detention Facility, ICE said. (Falconer, 7/1)
Bloomberg: Cory Booker Says He Would Shut ‘Inhumane’ Migrant Detention Centers
Cory Booker vowed to used executive authority as president to end detention for asylum seekers, shut down “inhumane” holding facilities and de-emphasize prosecutions of those in the country illegally unless they pose a safety risk. The New Jersey senator and Democratic presidential hopeful said that if elected he’d reverse most of President Donald Trump’s border policies on his first day in office without waiting for Congress to take action. (Kinery, 7/2)
