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Mike Pence faces severe criticism after his visit to migrant detention centres on the US border

Mike Pence faces severe criticism after his visit to migrant detention centres on the US border

On Friday, vice president Mike Pence visited two of Donald Trump's controversial detention centres, where thousands of people hoping to gain entry to the United States are being detained.

Pence first travelled to a border station in Donna, Texas, which is essentially a series of connected tents that were constructed in May to temporarily hold up to 1000 migrants. 800 people are currently there, including women and children.

Secondly, he went to a warehouse facility in McAllen, where more than 300 men are housed in cages and without any beds to sleep. Some of the men are said to have been there for more than 40 days.

Reports suggest that those being held did not have any food and that they needed permission to drink any water, which was situated outside of the cages.

Pence was visiting the facilities to see for himself the 'overcrowding' that Trump has been talking about in recent weeks and said that the migrants were being cared for by the border protection staff.

I was deeply moved to see the care that our Customs and Border Protection personnel are providing.

Coming here, to this station, where single adults are held, I've equally been inspired by the efforts of Customs and Protection doing a tough job in a difficult environment.

Footage filmed by NBC News has shown Pence at the locations but his blank and emotionless expression seem to be a stark comparison to his statement about being 'deeply moved.'

The images of the veep surrounded by cages of migrants pleading for food is likely to be one of the most damning images of the Trump presidency and people are not impressed, especially as Pence identifies as a Christian.

After tweeting about CNN reports about the facilities being 'dishonest' it led to a lot of people making comparisons between Pence and an image of the Nazi official, Heinrich Himmler looking at prisoners of war in a POW camp during WWII.

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