Pence visits migrant center with hundreds of men in crowded cages
During his hours-long tour of Texas detention facilities Friday, Vice President Mike Pence came face-to-face with a group of nearly 400 migrant men who were being held in cage-like fences. The men, who didn't all have room to lie down, told reporters that they'd been there for 40 days, and were hungry.
Seven Republican senators joined Pence on his tour -- but not a single Democrat accepted the invitation to come along.
"Each and every one of the children, each and every one of the parents that I spoke to, told me they were being treated well," Pence said after his visit.
Friday night, demonstrations and vigils protesting the conditions in those detention centers were held in cities across the country, outside the White House, and even on the doorstep of some of those detention facilities.
The vice president's visit comes on the heels of a scathing report from the Office of Inspector General, in which one manager called the situation at border facilities "a ticking time bomb" earlier this year. At least five migrant children have died in government custody since September.
In Washington, the House Oversight Committee released a report saying at least 18 children under two years old were separated from their parents for 20 days to half a year.