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Today I crossed the US-Mexico border in El Paso with @fams2gether and @LasAmericasIAC to help five women present themselves for asylum. These are my observations. Please don't look away.
One of them shared that she spent one month in detention. While there, she said the entire detention center had to stand in the sun all day without food, just water—but sometimes they ran out of water too.
One of the women—I can’t share her name out of concern for her safety—had to leave her home under threat of rape. Like thousands of others, under the Trump Administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, she is stuck in limbo in Mexico.
She was so hungry while in detention that she said they would eat the peel of the orange.
Another of the women has bruises all over her back from sleeping on the hard floor of the detention center. She wasn’t able to shower for over 20 days and has rashes on her skin from the lack of sanitation.
While in the detention center, she became sick. Despite the fact that the doctor wanted her to go to the hospital, border patrol refused. She was put in isolation and thought she would die.
These stories are profoundly alarming, but my words can’t begin to capture the pain. Their very human dignity is under assault, and it’s being done in our name.
We helped the women present themselves for asylum. @LasAmericasIAC will monitor them throughout the process to ensure they aren't sent back. But it shouldn't take a member of Congress to help people cross into our country. Seeking asylum is a legal right.
This is a crisis that demands an urgent answer. God-willing we will answer that call with the change that we need and the fight to make it happen.
