In Her Own Words: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Describes the “Intentional Cruelty” She Saw Inside a Migrant Detention Center

Listen to the congresswoman recount shocking conditions at the border, on this special edition of the Mother Jones Podcast.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, gets in an SUV after touring the inside of the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, on Monday.Cedar Attanasio/AP

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On Monday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) joined a 16-member congressional delegation that got a rare glimpse inside three highly fortified migrant detention facilities, which she has referred to as “concentration camps.” Mother Jones contributor Jonathan Katz, who writes the “The Long Version” newsletter, accompanied the delegation to the sites, though reporters were not permitted inside. Later, he sat down with Ocasio-Cortez to get her perspective on what had happened during the day, how we got here, and where things might go next. Click here to read Katz’s dispatch from Texas and a full transcript of the interview. And listen below to our exclusive sit-down with the congresswoman who has catapulted the issue to national attention, on this bonus episode of the Mother Jones Podcast:

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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