After the Department of Homeland Security banned House Oversight members from visiting the border, committee chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) fired back.
Cummings, in a somewhat scathing response, said the measures being taken by DHS against Democrats were unacceptable.
Can’t Do Our Jobs
Just as Rep. Omar stated when she was banned from entering Israel, Cummings is stating this measure by the DHS is preventing his members from doing their jobs.
He stated, “I am writing to express my deep concern that the Department of Homeland Security decided to block Committee staff from conducting visits to 11 detention facilities just days after previous staff inspections revealed potentially serious ongoing problems with the treatment of children and adults in DHS custody — including blocking visits to sites where the Inspector General warned about an ‘immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained.’”
Cummings also addressed the complaint by DHS on the alleged behavior of House members during a prior visit.
He stated, “Committee staff were not ‘rude’ and never once refused to abide by instructions from agency officials.
“Committee staff comported themselves professionally at all times while defending the authority of Congress to conduct an independent investigation of these well-documented abuses.”
He later added, “On a few occasions, Committee staff asked facility staff for additional time, and they agreed.
“When facility staff indicated that time for the visit had expired, Committee staff complied.”
Cummings, as well as other members of the Committee, are pushing the narrative that DHS is preventing them from seeing the facilities again because the agency is trying to hide the conditions at the border detention centers.
Cummings stated, “[D]etainees at Border Patrol facilities expressed concern that toddlers—and in one case even an infant—were being fed burritos rather than age-appropriate food, young children were held in cold rooms without appropriate clothing, and parents were not given a sufficient number of diapers for their children.
“One detainee alleged that a Border Patrol agent told a child who had spilled soup that the child would not receive more food unless the child drank the spilled soup off the floor.”
Source: Fox News
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