Trump Tweeted That the Deaths of Migrant Kids Are "Strictly the Fault of the Democrats"
On Monday, eight-year-old Guatemalan migrant Felipe Gomez-Alonza died of the flu while in the custody of US Customs and Border control, just a few weeks after seven-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin also died under the agency’s care. On Saturday, President Trump took to Twitter to blame the Democrats-as well as Caal Maquin’s father-for the deaths.
Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try! The two.....
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018
...children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol. The father of the young girl said it was not their fault, he hadn’t given her water in days. Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end. They are working so hard & getting so little credit!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018
The president not only refused to spare a single word of mourning for Felipe and Jakelin, but he misrepresented the circumstances of their deaths. While Border Control said that Jakelin had gone without food or water for days before she entered their custody, her father, who she was traveling with from their native Guatemala, insisted that Jakelin had consumed sufficient food and water during their journey. According to him, Border Patrol didn’t give Jakelin water for eight hours. Little is yet known about Felipe’s death, but as Buzzfeed points out, he’d been in Border Patrol custody for a week before he died, while the incubation period for the flu ranges from two to four days.
What's known about the facilities in which families are detained suggests that they’re not conducive to kids’ health and well-being. "We passed mounds of teddy bears and security blankets that were taken from the children because they might have scabies or lice," a pediatrician who visited one facility told NPR. "The lights are on 24 hours a day. The children sleep on thin mats on the floor with only a Mylar blanket."
Trump's rhetorical patterns are these days familiar, and he’s always been willing to blame the Democrats for his administration's failings. First it was a Trump Shutdown; then it was the Democrats’ shutdown. But playing this political blame game with the deaths of two children marks a new low for an administration that seemingly knows no bottom.
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