President Obama attacked President Trump on Wednesday for utilizing so-called “cages” at the United States-Mexico border to detain border crossers, the very same “cages” used by his Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In an interview with The Breakfast Club radio show, Obama ranted about the huge level of support Trump received in the November 3 presidential election from Hispanic Americans. According to exit polling, Trump won 32 percent of Hispanic Americans.
“But there’s a lot of evangelical Hispanics who, you know, the fact that Trump says racist things about Mexicans,” Obama said. “Or puts detainees, you know, undocumented workers, in cages — they think that’s less important than the fact that, you know, he supports their views on gay marriage or abortion, right?”
Obama’s DHS, overseen by Secretaries Janet Napolitano and Jeh Johnson, utilized those same so-called “cages” to detain border crossers who poured across during his eight-year tenure. Photos taken in 2014 in Nogales, Arizona and McAllen, Texas show chain-link fencing surrounding detainees, the same fencing that Democrats now criticize Trump for using.
In one case, then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson even toured the chain-link fencing with then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer at a Nogales border facility holding unaccompanied alien children.
Border Patrol officers escort Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Gov. Jan Brewer through the department’s Nogales processing facility for immigrant children. (Barry Bahler/Department of Homeland Security)
Detainees sleep and watch television in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center on June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona. Brownsville, Texas, and Nogales, have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Ross D. Franklin-Pool/Getty Images)
Two female detainees sleep in a holding cell, as the children are separated by age group and gender, as hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center on June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona. Brownsville, Texas, and Nogales, have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Ross D. Franklin-Pool/Getty Images)
A girl from Central America rests on thermal blankets at a detention facility run by the U.S. Border Patrol on September 8, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. The Border Patrol opened the holding center to temporarily house the children after tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the border illegally into the United States during the spring and summer. Although the flow of underage immigrants has since slowed greatly, thousands of them are now housed in centers around the United States as immigration courts process their cases. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A girl from Central America rests on thermal blankets at a detention facility run by the U.S. Border Patrol on September 8, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. The Border Patrol opened the holding center to temporarily house the children after tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the border illegally into the United States during the spring and summer. Although the flow of underage immigrants has since slowed greatly, thousands of them are now housed in centers around the United States as immigration courts process their cases. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the U.S. Border Patrol on September 8, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. The Border Patrol opened the holding center to temporarily house the children after tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the border illegally into the United States during the spring and summer. Although the flow of underage immigrants has since slowed greatly, thousands of them are now housed in centers around the United States as immigration courts process their cases. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A boy from Central America rests under a thermal blanket at a detention facility run by the U.S. Border Patrol on September 8, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. The Border Patrol opened the holding center to temporarily house the children after tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the border illegally into the United States during the spring and summer. Although the flow of underage immigrants has since slowed greatly, thousands of them are now housed in centers around the United States as immigration courts process their cases. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A U.S. Border Patrol agent watches as girls from Central America sleep under a thermal blanket at a detention facility run by the Border Patrol on September 8, 2014 in McAllen, Texas. The Border Patrol opened the holding center to temporarily house the children after tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors from Central America crossed the border illegally into the United States during the spring and summer. Although the flow of underage immigrants has since slowed, thousands of them remain housed in centers around the United States as immigration courts process their cases. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Two young girls watch a World Cup soccer match on a television from their holding area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center on June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona. Brownsville, Texas, and Nogales, have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Ross D. Franklin-Pool/Getty Images)
Young boys sleep in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center on June 18, 2014, in Nogales, Arizona. Brownsville, Texas, and Nogales, have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Ross D. Franklin-Pool/Getty Images)
In other instances, while Obama was president, border crossers would be crowded into holding rooms awaiting processing by federal immigration officials. Photos from 2014 reveal the extent to which border facilities became overwhelmed, with poor conditions.
These photos from 2014 from McAllen, Texas and Brownsville, Texas show the crowded circumstances that border crossers endured:
Immigrants who have been caught crossing the border illegally are housed inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas where they are processed on July 15, 2014, in McAllen, Texas. The detainees are both men and women and range in age from infants to adults, where more than 350 were being held. Detainees are mostly separated by gender and age, except for infants. More than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the southwestern border since October, more than twice the total this time last year, many through the Rio Grande Valley. Many are fleeing growing violence in Central America. (Rick Loomis-Pool/Getty Images)
Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, on June 18, 2014, in Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz. have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Eric Gay-Pool/Getty Images)
Immigrants who have been caught crossing the border illegally are housed inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas where they are processed on July 15, 2014, in McAllen, Texas. The detainees are both men and women and range in age from infants to adults, where more than 350 were being held. Detainees are mostly separated by gender and age, except for infants. More than 57,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the southwestern border since October, more than twice the total this time last year, many through the Rio Grande Valley. Many are fleeing growing violence in Central America. (Rick Loomis-Pool/Getty Images)
Sleeping detainees are see through the window of holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, on June 18, 2014, in Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz. have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Eric Gay-Pool/Getty Images)
BROWNSVILLE, TX – JUNE 18: Detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, on June 18, 2014, in Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz. have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1. (Eric Gay-Pool/Getty Images)
In 2014, Breitbart Texas broke the story of how child border crossers were being crammed into border facilities by the Obama administration, revealing a number of exclusive photos that went unmentioned by the establishment media at the time.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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