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Trump Exploits Migrant Child Deaths, Blames Democrats

Trump Exploits Migrant Child Deaths, Blames Democrats

On Saturday afternoon, President Trump blamed Democrats for the recent deaths of two migrant children held by Customs and Border Protection. In a series of angry tweets, he exploited those tragedies to justify his insistence on a border wall as the government shutdown entered its second week.

“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,” he wrote on Twitter. “They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try!”

Trump claimed that both children, Guatemalan migrants who had crossed the border from Mexico, were sick before federal agents apprehended them. But their medical condition and the events leading to their deaths remain under investigation by authorities. His tweets, Trump’s first public comments on the children’s deaths, deflected responsibility and expressed no concern for the bereaved families.

The deaths of Jakelin Caal, 8, and Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, have renewed public outrage over the “zero tolerance” immigration policies of the Trump administration — and raised serious concern about the treatment of immigrants in custody at the border.

Democrats swiftly denounced Trump’s indecent political opportunism. “The first reaction to the news of a death of a child in our custody ought to be empathy for the family and, frankly, enormous distress that that happened at all. It’s now the second such death,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-NY), who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

.”And instead, our President––who apparently lacks any capacity for human empathy––decides to use the death of two children as a political tool, something he can hit his opponents with. I think it’s really yet another new low in a president filled with new lows,” Connolly added.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) promised that under new Democratic leadership, the House would investigate the migrant children’s deaths.
“Even #MAGA folks would concede that @POTUS is not a doctor. He’s just making stuff up again,” wrote Lieu in a tweet responding to Trump. “In January the House of Representatives will hold hearings with witnesses under oath and find out what happened.”

Second Migrant Child, 8, Dies In US Custody

Second Migrant Child, 8, Dies In US Custody

An eight year-old boy from Guatemala, under detention by Customs and Border Protection, died shortly after midnight on Christmas Day at a New Mexico hospital. He is the second migrant child to die in U.S. custody at the border in December.

He was identified as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez, in a statement released by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), who said that “many questions remain unanswered, including how many children have died in CBP custody.”

The first migrant child to die in US custody was seven year-old Jakelin Caal, also from Guatemala. She died of dehydration and shock on Dec. 8, less than two days after border agents apprehended her and her father.

Immediately after Felipe’s death, the CBP ordered medical assessments of 700 minors held in its El Paso sector, where both dead children were held, according to the Washington Post.

A CBP news release indicated that Felipe had become ill on Monday and was diagnosed with “a cold” at a hospital in Alamagordo, N.M. “The child was held for an additional 90 minutes for observation and then released from the hospital mid-afternoon on December 24 with prescriptions for amoxicillin [a common oral antibiotic] and Ibuprofen,” according to the CBP statement,

But when the boy vomited on Monday night, he was returned to the Alamagordo hospital, where he died several hours later. The cause of death is still unknown, as are details about his place of detention and the length of time he and his father were held.

As Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee, told the Washington Post,: “The reality is that a detention center is no place for a child, particularly a sick child. When that child was determined to be ill, had a 103-degree fever, why they would send that child back to a detention center, which is really not fit for even a well child?”

IMAGE: A Donald Trump for President campaign sticker is shown attached to a U.S. Customs sign hanging on the border fence between Mexico and the United States  February 8, 2017.. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Religious Right Shuts Out Spirit Of Christmas

Religious Right Shuts Out Spirit Of Christmas

As Christmas approaches, the conservative media axis is aflame with anger and resentment over President Donald J. Trump’s failure so far to procure funding for his wall across the southern border. It seems an odd preoccupation in a moment of a teetering economy, a chaotic White House, numerous foreign conflagrations and multiple investigations into a corrupt administration, but the border wall is the major talking point for Sean Hannity, Matt Drudge, and their compatriots.

The pre-eminence of the wall in the imaginations of Trump and his allies is curious. It has always been more symbol than bulwark, more representation than fortification. As the nation grows inexorably browner, as white Americans lose their cultural dominance, the wall is an emblem of their resistance to demographic change. Trump’s voters want to shut out “those people,” the ones that the president has denounced as terrorists, rapists, drug dealers and violent gang-bangers.

There are countless elements of irony in this resistance, but one that sticks out in this season is this: Aren’t “those people” the very ones that the president’s constituency of conservative Christians ought to be reaching out to assist at Christmas? Isn’t the New Testament full of entreaties to help the less fortunate, to support those in trouble, to aid the stranger? Isn’t this season supposed to represent the opportunity for renewal of a generous spirit, a compassionate disposition, a merciful outlook?

Even non-Christians know the story at the heart of the Christmas celebration: A young pregnant woman and her husband report to authorities in a place where they are not welcome, and she is forced to give birth in a stable. After warnings, they flee with their newborn because a powerful man wants to harm their son. Ahem. Any parallels here?

Yet there has been precious little outcry from Trump’s sycophants over the death of a young girl in the custody of U.S. border agents. Earlier this month, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal died after reporting to a remote New Mexico border outpost with her father, Nery, who intended to apply for asylum.

To reach the United States, Jakelin and her father had crossed the desert with a group of other Central American migrants. The Washington Post has reported that she died of complications from dehydration, though an autopsy has not been completed. To cross the southern border without papers, migrants undertake a treacherous journey, often on foot, often in searing heat and without adequate food or water. Thousands have died trying to complete the journey. An investigation into her death is underway, and it may well be that she would have died even if she had received swift medical attention once she reached New Mexico.

But she did not receive that swift attention, according to the Post’s Nick Miroff, who reported that she and her father waited hours for a bus to take them to a larger border facility. A few minutes into the 90-minute trip, the girl started to vomit, but Border Patrol agents continued the drive, summoning an ambulance when they arrived. By the time she reached an El Paso, Texas, children’s hospital, Miroff wrote, Jakelin’s temperature had soared to nearly 106 degrees. She was dead within hours.

Even if U.S. immigration authorities are blameless in Jakelin’s death, you’d think there would be more outrage, more anger, more finger-pointing — even from Trump’s base. What about their concern for children, especially during this season? Shouldn’t they demand more appropriate care for families who will inevitably show up at tiny border facilities?

A federal judge recently shot down President Trump’s narrow new rules for asylum seekers, ordering him to follow the old regulations: Migrants may still seek asylum based on credible fears of domestic violence or gang violence. That’s good news for asylum seekers, but it also means that women and children, especially, will continue to seek sanctuary at tiny outposts after long and grueling trips.

The Trump administration, however, has decided that its practiced cruelty is the best way to deter them. It continues policies and procedures that will result in more heartbreak, more family separations and, likely, more deaths. Why aren’t those who celebrate the religious traditions of Christmas more outraged? Isn’t compassion what those religious traditions represent?