Government officials discussed their proposals to relieve crowded border detention facilities.
Senator Rob Portman visited a few of these facilities that hold undocumented immigrants over the weekend. He visited the facilities with Vice President Mike Pence.
Portman said lack of funding is one of the reasons why facilities are crowded with poor conditions. He said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was left out of the emergency border funding earlier this year.
“That’s why the processing centers for the single men are just absolutely packed and the conditions are bad because we can’t send them to the ICE facilities because the ICE beds were not funded in the $4.6 billion,” he said.
Portman said elected officials should work with United Nations to set up processing centers in other countries where immigrants can seek asylum.
Sen. Sherrod Brown was also in Texas over the weekend, and he said agents denied him access to these facilities Sunday because of insufficient staffing.
