Rev. Sammy Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), visited a border detention center recently. He didn’t find deplorable conditions.

Rodriguez told Shannon Bream of Fox News that when he visited the Clint, Texas, center last Friday, migrants weren’t mistreated. He visited the same center as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

“I was not restricted at all, as to what I could ask or where I could go,” the pastor told Bream. “Here’s what I discovered: I found kids created in the image of God and I found border control agents created in the image of God working together in a very difficult environment.” He added that he didn’t find soiled diapers, crying children or deplorable conditions. “Quite the opposite. I found amazing people on both sides trying to make a very difficult circumstance better. I don’t know where everyone else is visiting.

“What I also discovered was that the original report — the attorneys that actually reported the soiled diapers and deplorable conditions — they never, ever walked through the center. … They took that information, anecdotally, from interviews with children — with children mind you — from the age of two to the age of 17. So, the truth sets you free.”

Rodriguez’s statements contradict Ocasio-Cortez’s. Ocasio-Cortez had claimed that detainees were forced to drink toilet water and were psychologically abused.

One border patrol agent told Rodriguez that “what they’re saying about us is completely false. We care about these kids and have a passion for our calling.”

Bream said that she, along with others, pray that leaders will have wisdom and compassion and solve the crisis at the border.

“In Jesus’ name,” Rodriguez agreed.

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Nancy Flory is an Associate Editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.