Catholic charity accuses Alex Jones of staging confrontation over reported child migrants

A Catholic charity says that Infowars' Alex Jones staged a viral confrontation over child migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

What are the details?

According to a Friday report from Newsweek, the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in McAllen, Texas, have hit back at Jones over what they said was a staged confrontation.

The charity is at the center of a controversial video filmed by Jones' team, who accused the Catholic organization of illegally "smuggling children" into the United States.

According to Newsweek:

The Infowars host uploaded a video in which he confronts a driver outside Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in the city of McAllen, Texas, while repeatedly accusing him of trafficking the migrant children he is transporting.

At one point, Jones steps in front of the car to stop it from driving away after noticing the children do not have seatbelts in the back of the vehicle.

"You are violating Texas law," Jones yells. "We know you're smuggling these kids. You've got them in the back of [the car] without children's seats."

Jones and the other members of the Infowars team, and conservative commentator Drew Hernandez, continue to accuse the driver of smuggling children without evidence to justify the claims.

The clip ends with a police officer arriving at the scene and the children, accompanied by at least one adult female, exiting the car.

Elsewhere in the video, one of the Infowars' team accuses the Catholic Churches of the Rio Grande Valley of providing migrant families with clothing and debit cards containing $1,200 before releasing them 'into the United States into a destination or city of their choice.'"

What has the organization said about this?

In a statement to the outlet, Sister Norma Pimentel — executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley — said that the viral video is a "contrived misrepresentation" of what the organization is doing and said that Jones simply "staged confrontation interrupting the goodwill of someone" taking the children to the Humanitarian Respite Center.

"The Humanitarian Respite Center and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley are not involved in any human smuggling or trafficking networks," Pimentel said in the statement. "Ideally, the children should have been wearing seatbelts; unfortunately, this was not the case in this instance."

"I want to express my deep concern and disappointment regarding this attempt to sensationalize the work of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and so many in the city of McAllen who have consistently worked together to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable," Pimentel added in the statement.