By Michael Bielawski
In the race for Vermont’s U.S. House seat, GOP candidate Mark Coester says he saw what are being called “rape tents” during a “horrific” southern border visit two years ago.
The comments were in a debate with Incumbent Democrat Becca Balint which occurred on Oct. 1, on Vermont Public. The debate spans several different issues including immigration.
The Coester campaign is now highlighting parts of this debate in their campaign emails, stating “Mark Coester confronts Becca Balint on border security failures in U.S. House debate.”
For her part, Balint asserted that she will be strong on border policies. She says the current leadership in Washington has “kicked the can for far too many years in the federal government.”
They were asked about the challenges of both the southern and northern border. Coester brought up the tents when talking about his visit to the southern border two years ago.
“Yes, the northern border has increased, I believe, 1,700% or more, more incursions than there had been in the previous 10 years,” he said. “The southern border, I went there to see it myself, back in ’22. It was horrific, absolutely horrific. You could look across and see the rape tents. You could see children’s—”
At this point moderator Mikaela Lefrak says “I’m sorry, what?” and Coester reiterates, “Rape tents. You could look across the border and see the rape tents.”
Lefrak disputes this assertion, saying “OK, I have not seen any evidence of a rape tent.”
Coester doubles down, saying, “You could see — I saw them in person. You could see the cartel on the hilltops, not only on the Mexican side, but on the U.S. side, in camouflage. Everywhere you looked. I was there for more than 24 hours. We were handing out water bottles and snacks and Bibles in Spanish with a number to call if people got in trouble.”
According to a report by Doctors Without Borders, they interview witnesses and victims of these tents. Their report focuses on a land bridge that travelers from South America must pass through to get to the States.
It includes an interview with one of the victims who says she was raped five times. Her name was not used in the report.
“Like many migrants, she was forced by the economic conditions in her country to cross the Darién Gap, a route that is described as one of the most dangerous in the world,” it states.
The report offers some statistics. It says, “In October alone, MSF teams assisted 107 survivors, including 59 people in one week—which equates to one incident of sexual violence occurring every three hours. Three of the rape victims were children aged 11, 12, and 16.”
At the debate, Coester suggests that existing immigration laws are not being enforced.
“Follow the existing laws,” he said. “That’s that’s the thing. First, you need to follow the existing laws. Enter only through a port of entry, and then we can negotiate some sort of immigration reform. My, my wife, came into this country legally from the Ukraine.”
Balint talks about fentanyl and working on legislation
Balint took her turn to talk about immigration and she focused on the legislation she’s been working on.
“There was a border bill that came, bipartisan border bill, in the Senate that would have infused more money, significant more money to hire more border patrol agents, more asylum judges, more technical assistance to detect fentanyl, which I know is a ravaging so many, so many families here in Vermont.”
She suggests that some treatment of border crossers is too harsh, saying, “I think it is absolutely understandable that we do want a safe and secure border, and we also have to treat migrants and immigrants and people seeking asylum with dignity and humanity.”
Her page for the U.S. House further reiterates these positions, and notes that she is “the daughter of an immigrant and someone who lost her grandfather in the Holocaust.”
Her page says, “Becca supports comprehensive immigration reform as well as surging resources and increasing efficiencies to reduce processing wait times and alleviate hardships faced by refugees, asylum seekers and other immigrants arriving in the United States.”
The whole interview spans several subjects where the candidates differentiate from one another, it can be heard/read at Vermont Public.
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle