Joaquin Castro tweets photos, video taken inside migrant detention center

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) on Monday tweeted photos and video taken inside a migrant detention center, saying Americans need to see what is taking place at the facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The images were captured as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus delegation visited facilities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Our border patrol system is broken. And part of the reason it stays broken is because it’s kept secret. The American people must see what is being carried out in their name,” he tweeted as part of a thread about what he saw at the facilities.

Our border patrol system is broken. And part of the reason it stays broken is because it’s kept secret. The American people must see what is being carried out in their name. The @HispanicCaucus led a delegation of members of Congress to visit 2 border patrol facilities.

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019

Castro tweeted a video of several women, under the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), sitting on the floor with blankets at a station in El Paso, Texas. One of the women said she did not have medicine.{mosads}

“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,” Castro tweeted. “For some, it also means being separated from their children. This is El Paso Border Station #1.”

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

He also tweeted a video depicting a shower at a border patrol station in Clint, Texas.

The showers at Clint Border Patrol Station. pic.twitter.com/z0ATi67q1i

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019

“All Americans must help to change this system,” he wrote alongside a photo of migrant women.

All Americans must help to change this system. Thank you to the members who attended today: @RepEscobar, @RepJudyChu, @RepPeteAguilar, @NormaJTorres, @RepSylviaGarcia, @AOC, @RepLoriTrahan, @RepJoeKennedy, @RepVeasey, @RepPressley, @RepDean, @RepRashida, @gregstantonaz. pic.twitter.com/CZX0wBwWZZ

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who also visited the facilities, tweeted an additional photo taken by Castro. She said that one woman said her daughters were taken from her.

Here’s another photo from inside taken by @JoaquinCastrotx, where we’re trying to comfort women trapped in cells.

This woman was telling me about her daughters who were taken from her – she doesn’t know where they’ve taken them.

We held & listened to them. They were distraught. pic.twitter.com/ca1GwKfDfU

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

In another tweet, Castro described the conditions, which he said included women “crammed into a prison-like cell with one toilet, but no running water to drink from or wash their hands with.”

Here’s what we found:

At the El Paso Border Patrol Station #1, women from Cuba, some grandmothers, crammed into a prison-like cell with one toilet, but no running water to drink from or wash their hands with. Concrete floors, cinder-block walls, steel toilets.

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) July 1, 2019

CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

The treatment of migrants in U.S. government custody has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after attorneys described poor conditions to The Associated Press in which children were being kept.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement separately reported Monday that one of its detainees died Sunday. 

Castro is the brother of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Obama administration.