Trump says if asylum seekers don't like conditions in detention centers, 'they shouldn't come'

REUTERS/Joshua Lott

• Politicians and activists have been vocally criticizing conditions at detention centers along the US-Mexico border. 
• On Tuesday, the Office of the Inspector General released a report noting that the prolonged detention of children and adults without adequate access to food, hygiene, or even a change of clothes "require(s) immediate attention." 
• On Wednesday, President Trupm tweeted that if "immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detention centers, just tell them not to come."

Politicians, attorneys, and human rights groups have been vocal in recent days and weeks about nightmarish conditions in migrant detention centers along the US-Mexico border.

Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused US Customs and Border Protection of "systematic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals," after touring detention facilities in South Texas with members of the House Hispanic Caucus. U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro, who also visited detention centers in Texas this week, said that migrants were deprived of showers and their medication, and were locked in areas with broken water faucets.

Following those comments, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General released its final report on Tuesday about overcrowding at border facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, noting that the prolonged detention of children and adults without adequate access to food, hygiene, or even a change of clothes "require(s) immediate attention." 

While children were removed from a Texas facility following reports that they struggled to care for each other, and often lacked adequate food and basic hygiene, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson previously told INSIDER that that Border Patrol station has since resumed housing migrant children.

Despite public outcry, however, the president offered no pity on social media. Rather, in a Wednesday afternoon Twitter post, he said "if Illegal Immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detention centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!"

In contrast, 2020 contender Kamala Harris questioned in a Wednesday Twitter post "how can anybody look at these photos and think this isn't a human rights abuse?" while referring to photos highlighting extreme overcrowding and poor conditions in a Texas facility.

Trump spent much of Wednesday tweeting about the border crisis. "Now, if you really want to fix the Crisis at the Southern Border," he wrote, "both humanitarian and otherwise, tell migrants not to come into our country unless they are willing to do so legally, and hopefully through a system based on Merit. This way we have no problems at all!"

In one tweet he praised Mexico for "doing a better job at the border than Democrats." 

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