Democrat Norma Torres: I Worried CPB Agents Would Attack My Staff on Migrant Facility Tour

Appearing Tuesday on CNN’s New Day, Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA) expressed concern that her staff was in danger of being assaulted by U.S.Customs and Border Patrol agents during guided tours of migrant detention facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border the day before.

Rep. Norma Torres says she was upset by “the lack of respect for human life, the lack of disregard, the humanity of these children has been stripped away from them” after touring border facilities in Texas https://t.co/lq9aHnmKdp pic.twitter.com/VMqvenIlXO

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 2, 2019

A partial transcript is as follows: 

ALISYN CAMEROTA: How were you treated when you went there?

REP. NORMA TORRES: I was definitely concerned. We were disrespected when we were there. We had a conversation with management about this article before we entered the location. We were told that our staff had to stay outside and that we had to keep either our phones there at the entryway or we had to leave them in the car. Now, I don’t trust to leave my cellphone with these individuals that would threaten members of Congress while we are in the process of doing our job.

Let me remind these people that this is our job. Oversight is our job, and that’s what we were doing. To threaten members of Congress, I certainly did not feel safe to be inside this location. I voiced those concerns, and I also voiced my concern for the safety of my staff that was left outside and who was going to be taking care and ensuring that no attacks were going to be against our staff. And they reassured us of that. But certainly, when we walked inside the facility, there were agents taking selfies, photos with us in the background. None of us had a phone to record these actions by these agents.