Border agents confiscated lawmakers' phones; Joaquin Castro captured photo, video anyway

When the delegation of Congressional Democrats arrived in Texas Monday to tour border facilities holding migrants, they were told in briefing packets and by Customs and Border Protection staff that photos and videos were prohibited - to protect the privacy and safety of those inside.

The group of 14 lawmakers respected those guidelines while in an El Paso facility for children operated by the Department of Health and Human Services, said U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

"We understand protecting kids," Aguilar said.

But the same understanding did not apply to the two Border Patrol stations in El Paso and Clint, where the lawmakers' phones were confiscated by CBP, and where Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, managed to capture photos and videos on a recording device anyway.

"Our border patrol system is broken. And part of the reason it stays broken is because it's kept secret," Castro said on Twitter. "The American people must see what is being carried out in their name."

He went on to post photos of a dozen migrant women, at least some from Cuba, who sat atop blue sleeping bags on the ground in a small concrete room. In one photo, Ocasio-Cortez is sitting on the ground hugging a woman who had been separated from her daughters and did not know where they were, the congresswoman said.

In a video Castro posted of the same women, which resembles body-camera footage, Ocasio-Cortez can be heard speaking to the women in Spanish and then asking someone off camera in English about their medication and health care.

Though many members in the delegation used their social media platforms to describe with words what they were seeing and hearing, the stealthily captured photos and videos served as a rare window into the Border Patrol stations and detention facilities that the Trump administration has made increasingly difficult to access.

Reporters and photojournalists are rarely granted access, and the images and video that have been published are often the view from above - showing masses of people gathered beneath tents and foil blankets.

Castro's visual evidence of the plight inside these facilities also raised questions about why elected government officials are not allowed to have phones inside the border facilities, but border patrol agents are - a disconnect that led to tense moments between CBP staff and some in the congressional delegation.

The media relations office for CBP did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post.

At their first stop of the day, the El Paso Border Patrol station, the delegation was told to leave their phones in a conference room or with congressional staff while on the tour because people on past congressional visits had allegedly taken unauthorized photos.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, pushed back against that, and later confirmed on Twitter that she raised her voice at El Paso Border Patrol Chief Aaron Hull.

A staffer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said the congresswoman also "spoke sternly" to a CBP officer who "tried to take a stealth selfie" with her "in a mocking manner, despite the gravity of the situation."

A Washington Examiner report, quoting two unnamed witnesses, claimed Ocasio-Cortez addressed the officer in a "threatening way." The congresswoman's staffer called the report an "inaccurate depiction of events."

Ocasio-Cortez also tweeted about the interaction.

"To these CBP officers saying they felt 'threatened by me,' " Ocasio-Cortez wrote. " ... They confiscated my phone, and they were all armed. I'm 5'4". They're just upset I exposed their inhumane behavior."

Earlier that day, ProPublica had published a report exposing a private Facebook group for U.S. Border Patrol agents called "I'm 10-15," after the law enforcement code for "aliens in custody." The group hosted xenophobic and sexist comments, remarks about the death of migrants and sexually explicit images edited to include those of Ocasio-Cortez.

While touring the facilities, Ocasio-Cortez linked the behavior in the Facebook group to what she said she witnessed at the border. The congresswoman described conversations with the women from the video, who told her that they had gone two weeks without showers, had been told to drink toilet water when their cell sink broke and were fearful of retribution for even speaking to the congressional delegation.

During a news conference later, Ocasio-Cortez told reporters she was "not safe from the officers in the facility."

"Imagine all your hateful trolls online, but with guns," the congresswoman's chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, wrote on Twitter. "Imagine walking into a fenced area full of them. No exit. You don't get to take any cameras or phones with you. And those trolls with guns? They're the ones in charge of protecting you. That's what AOC faced today."

Other members of Congress also said they did not feel safe in the facilities.

Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., who joined the Democratic delegation for the Texas trip, said Tuesday on CNN that she "certainly did not feel safe" while touring the detention center. "When we walked inside the facility, there were CBP agents taking selfies with us in the background," Torres said. "None of us had a cellphone to be able to record these actions by these agents. But imagine, this is what they are doing to members of Congress in front of their leadership; so you could imagine what happens behind closed doors."

Brian Hastings, chief of operations for Border Patrol, told CNN that they take the Facebook posts "seriously" and said that they "do not represent the thoughts of the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol ... Don't let the actions of a few be representative of the whole, is what I'd ask."

Hastings also said "appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken" against any Border Patrol agents employed by the U.S. government. The information from the ProPublica report has been turned over to the Office of the Inspector General and to CBP's own office of internal affairs.