During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” Vice President Mike Pence stated that the conditions inside one of the border detention facilities he visited were not acceptable to him and stated that Congress needs to act.
CNN Senior White House Correspondent Pamela Brown asked, “We went to two different facilities today, and there seemed to be a big difference between the first one, where the families were being housed, and the one here where there are single adult migrants. When I went in there, one of them said to me — I’m talking about the second facility, this isn’t human, the way we’re treated. It was — there was a horrible smell. I’m sure you smelled it. You were in there as well. They were sleeping on concrete. Because there’s not enough room for cots we’re told. It was hot. Some of them claimed they were hungry. Is that acceptable to you?”
Pence responded, “No, it’s not. And it’s the reason why we demanded that Congress provide $4.6 billion in additional support to Customs and Border Protection. Look, for the last six months, Democrats in Congress have been saying this is a manufactured crisis, but as you saw, firsthand, today, here at McAllen Station, where our cells are overflowing, and now that temporary facility that you just saw had to be established, and then the first facility that we saw, where nearly 1,000 families with children are being detained, ought to be a very clear message to every American that the time for action is now, and the time for Congress to act, to end the flow of families that are coming north from Central America to our border is now.”
Pence also criticized statements that people are being held in “concentration camps” as a “slander against Customs and Border Protection.”
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