Illegals demand right to life, liberty and perfectly-set thermostats



Illegal aliens caught by the Border Patrol while crossing into the United States are complaining that their holding cells are too cold. After traveling long distances to reach the U.S. border, they just can’t handle the harsh temperature of – wait for it – between 70 and 75 degrees.

The Washington Post claims that the “tired and poor” illegal aliens “do a lot of huddling” because of the air conditioning in detention facilities. The Post details the testimonies of multiple women who claim their families had a hard time staying warm.

In an effort to portray illegal aliens as the victims, open-borders advocates have accused the Border Patrol of detaining illegal aliens in “deep freezers” for years. This message was pushed well before the Trump administration, but once again appeared in the mainstream media when Attorney General Jeff Sessions enacted his zero tolerance policy.

A federal inspector determined that the temperatures in most detention facilities were between 70 and 75 degrees. Yet illegal aliens he interviewed told him they were still cold. This included a 4-year-old boy housed in a 76-degree room. That’s a mere two degrees cooler than the U.S. Department of Energy’s recommended setting. Conveniently, however, many news outlets completely avoided mentioning the temperatures recorded by inspectors.

The allegedly freezing conditions illegal aliens supposedly face were a part of lawsuits throughout the Obama administration. In 2015, the open-borders leaning American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and American Immigration Council sued the Border Patrol in part due to detention facility temperatures. That lawsuit remains pending. The Reagan administration dealt with similar issues decades earlier in the Reno v. Flores case that was settled in 1997 pursuant to the so-called “Flores Agreement.”

The Flores Agreement sets out requirements for the detention of illegal alien minors. Part of this agreement includes “adequate temperature control and ventilation.” According to The Washington Post article, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may have a Flores Agreement coordinator undertake unannounced inspections.

But in reality, the Border Patrol isn’t operating a taxpayer-funded luxury hotel. It’s running a detention operation that should be focused on the safety of both illegal aliens and CBP staff.   Yet poor immigration policies have resulted in an entitlement syndrome so strong that some are now demanding control of the thermostat.

About Author

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Casey joined FAIR in 2018. He assists the research team with projects and writes for FAIR’S website. He previously spent a year working in journalism in Washington, D.C. He graduated from the University of Central Florida with a B.A. in Journalism in 2017.

16 Comments

  1. avatar

    Why don’t we just turn the whole country over to the illegals? Hell, they already act like they own it!

    • avatar

      They do act like they own it. So I wish the government would lay the LAWS down and let them know they don’t. And we will not change our LAWS, language, for them as they think will be done.

  2. avatar

    What you aren’t hearing in the media is the nations these people come from are neo-Marxist states. The illegals also had to be taught to drink from water fountain (technology beyond them) instead of the toilet – that’s why you heard media outrage at their complaints they were “forced to drink toilet water”. These illegals are mostly indigenous tribes, who are not only illiterate, but backward thinking with embedded entitlement syndrome courtesy their government and TV. We’re getting the worst sort of persons that *could* be imported, next to terrorists. These are as bad as terrorists in my mind, as they destroy our country but at a slower rate.

  3. avatar

    These ingrates get free A/C while I stuggle to pay my utility bill. Why don’t they go back to Mexico or El Salvador; I hear it’s Muy Caliente! down there this time of year!

    • avatar

      Exactly what I was thinking. People that do the illegal things can cry and ask for better and get it. Please let them know what they did was wrong and go to mexico jails and see if they can get better. Rather than do the wrong and think you should get even good.

  4. avatar

    Alex Nowrasteh, a member of the libertarian CATO Institute, has an opinion piece in the LA Times lamenting Trump plans to deny green cards to those who use government benefits. The whole purpose of immigration was always, and still is in many countries, about the ability of the immigrant to contribute to the country and not the other way around.

    One of Nowrasteh’s complaints is that “Even the welfare consumption of an immigrant’s citizen children-their use of food stamps or Medicaid-would count in the calculation”. Gee, too bad. I guess we are supposed to just “count” all the supposed benefits and not the considerable costs these “citizen children”, frequently of illegals, put on this country. Suppose an illegal has 4 children, not an uncommon occurrence, and they are born over a period of 10 years. From the time the last one turns 18, that is over a quarter century of government handouts to those children, who are only here because of their parent’s illegal act. Some advantage, and that does not even include the cost of bilingual education.

    One really good thing Trump did was with a stroke of the pen cancel Obama’s “deal” with Iran, which essentially dropped economic sanctions and gave them billions in cash to cause unrest all through the Middle East. That was no doubt because of Obama’s worldview that saw everyone who opposed us as doing so because of our “colonial history”. Some countries are troublemakers and that was Iran.

  5. avatar
    gnerd phynque on

    Being too cold isn’t my problem, I didn’t invite you to invade my country. If you are too cold stay in South America. Has anyone ever told you we don’t want you here?

  6. avatar
    Diana Talmadge on

    The illegals should have been sent back home immediately…. All countries , especially Mexico should pay room & board for every illegal in our country…we can withhold the money from the foreign aid we are forced to pay ..the vile politicians forget the promises they made the voters during their campaigns….

  7. avatar

    Send them back at the border! But if we MUST detain them, then put them to hard labor working on the border fence and then throw them over!

  8. avatar
    Dr. Mike Reeder on

    You have got to be kidding me! These folks need to be sent to the north where temperatures are REALLY cold. Most would never make it and that’s just fine with me. Go back where you came from and leave the U.S. and our bleeding heart liberal friends alone. But, the liberals will always find something else to bit*h about even if there are no more illegals. Maybe we should send them somewhere there is NO temperature controls, like Uzbeckstan, China or, and here’s a thought, Russia. Bet they will change their crying azz tune is s week or so…….