A Hispanic pastor said his tour of the same facility visited by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Costa (AOC) left him with a “drastically different” perception of the facility. The paster said her comments about the Border Patrol detention facility in El Paso County, Texas, left him “full of indignation.”
“Even as a veteran of immigration advocacy in the U.S., I was shocked at the misinformation of the crisis at the border,” Rev. Samuel Rodriguez told Fox News. The pastor serves as president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and senior pastor of the New Seasons Christian Worship Center in Sacramento, California.
Rodriquez places the blame for the broken immigration system that led to the current border crisis on consecutive White House administrations and especially on Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — who he implored to “address the system they created.”
“We found no soiled diapers, no deplorable conditions and no lack of basic necessities,” Rodriguez explained. He said he asked Border Patrol agents if they staged the facility in response to the negative press. “They unequivocally denied it — we were witnessing the identical conditions the attorneys saw when they toured the facility days earlier.”
He went on to say that some sources from whom the negative coverage originated “never toured the areas of the facility we toured.” He speculated they might have political motivations, Fox News reported.
He then turned his attention to the men and women who serve as Border Patrol agents and immigration officers. He said many of them are Latinos. He relayed a comment from an agent who said to him, “Pastor Sam, what they’re saying about us is completely false. We care about these kids and have a passion for our calling.”
“What’s heart-wrenching is that we have both Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress, who can’t come together for the purpose of doing the right thing and finding a solution to our immigration crisis,” Rodriquez concluded. “Please, President Trump, please White House, work with the Republicans and the Democrats [and] please, please, please, please, Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, please come together to solve this crisis, immediately.”
Rev. Rodriquez also served as an advisor on immigration reform to Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.