Rep. Mark Green says Democrats don't have their facts straight on conditions at migrant detention facilities.
Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan faces heated questioning from House Democrats on border facilities; reaction from Congressman Mark Green, a Republican member of the House Oversight Committee.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., charged Thursday that congressional Democrats have continually ignored the crisis at the southern border for political reasons and are now trying to flip the script and blame President Trump.
"It's almost out of control and even their facts aren't right. When they show pictures of children in cages, it's from the Obama administration," Green said on "Outnumbered Overtime."
"Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said they were not getting drinking water when she was just taking the word of someone. She didn't actually go and test that. And then when border patrol went and checked, it was actually drinking water. I mean, their facts just aren't correct."
"What we have on our southern border is a crisis and it is massive, and they have ignored it for months, tried to say that it was manufactured," he continued. "And now when they can't avoid it any longer, they're going to blame the president and that's what we're experiencing, that's what we're seeing in this committee room. Honestly, it's shameful."
MANY IN MEDIA CHANGING THEIR TUNE ON BORDER 'CRISIS' AFTER CLAIMING IT WAS MANUFACTURED
Host Harris Faulkner asked if border detention facilities are being fully transparent with politicians and journalists, and Green said so long as a visit is planned and pre-approved, the visitors are granted full access. He also said a Republican delegation is planning to visit various facilities along the border on July 28.
"There is complete transparency when they actually get an official visit approved, and it's interesting -- the Democrat party controls the House. They're the ones that get to decide on if ... a congressional delegation can actually happen," he replied.
"They can make that happen. In fact, we're leaving a week from Sunday with a GOP delegation to go down there and take a look ourselves. We're going to start in El Paso and go all the way over to Arizona. So, absolutely it can happen. We're going to hit a lot."
Green also spoke about his personal experience as a medical doctor and said the crisis at the border has thrown the country into "triage mode," and must be brought under control through congressional legislation, and changes to the asylum laws.
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"I'm an emergency medicine physician and so disaster preparedness is exactly what I'm trained for. I'm also an ex-army physician so I've worked in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whenever the system is overwhelmed, you go into triage mode. And our system is overwhelmed," he said.
"What we've got to do is increase the diameter of the pipeline and actually, DHS has done that. They've put four new holding facilities in place and two more are coming ... And now the children that are being held, it's down to 300, maybe 350 as of yesterday... It is [still] a big number and the real fix is Congress fixing our asylum laws and changing this incentive to make a horrible trek where women are being assaulted in [and] amongst drug dealers."
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