(Image source from: New York Daily News)

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the first-term Democratic Congresswoman took to Twitter and wrote about the ordeals the migrants entering the United States are going through after visiting the facility with other U.S. lawmakers on Monday.

In a tweet, she wrote that migrants are being held at border patrol station in Texas and their condition is so “horrifying”. She wrote that apart from the psychological abuse, they are subjected to, they are forced to drink out of toilets.   

Just left the 1st CBP facility.

I see why CBP officers were being so physically &sexually threatening towards me.

Officers were keeping women in cells w/ no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets.

This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019

Trump administration’s immigration policy was criticized all over the world after the tragic death of Salvadorian father-daughter duo after drowning in river trying to enter the U.S. through Mexico border.

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

The border patrol facility was toured by a delegation of Congressional Hispanic Caucus lawmakers after the reports from the government watchdog revealing that the immigrants were being kept in unsanitary and overcrowded conditions.

After I forced myself into a cell w/ women&began speaking to them, one of them described their treatment at the hands of officers as “psychological warfare” - waking them at odd hours for no reason, calling them wh*res, etc.

Tell me what about that is due to a “lack of funding?”

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019

Cortez wrote it on Twitter after she visited El Paso main border patrol station where she saw women locked in cells without water and according to her, they were also told to drink out of toilets.

This moment captures what it’s like for women in CBP custody to share a cramped cell—some held for 50 days—for them to be denied showers for up to 15 days and life-saving medication. For some, it also means being separated from their children. This is El Paso Border Station #1. pic.twitter.com/OmCAlGxDt8

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019

“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," she wrote. "This has been horrifying so far."

According to Reuters, however, it couldn’t independently confirm her account and neither did the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) which oversees the Border Patrol responded to the request by the Reuters to respond on her comments.

In May, the internal government watchdog had warned of “dangerous overcrowding” at the El Paso facility and the condition in which the immigrants were kept had become a flashpoint in recent weeks. In June, the alarms were raised by lawmakers about hundreds of children living in difficult inhuman conditions at another station in Clint, Texas.

Both facilities in Texas were visited on Monday.

By Sowmya Sangam