While addressing a question about the death of a 7-year-old migrant girl — who died of shock and dehydration while in Border Patrol custody — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen harped on the “dangers of this journey.”
She called the death “heart-wrenching,” but said it was “a very sad example” of what can happen when immigrants “choose to come here illegally.”
“This family chose to cross illegally, what happened here is they were about 90 miles away from where we could process them,” she told “Fox and Friends” Friday morning. “They came in such a large crowd, it took our border patrol folks a couple times to get them all. We gave immediate care, we’ll continue to look into the situation, but again, I cannot stress (enough) how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally.”
Nielsen blames "dangers of this journey" for death of migrant 7 yr old migrant girl who died in border patrol custody pic.twitter.com/I1nkkTBubg
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 14, 2018
Placing blame on the “journey” for the child’s death is a talking point that others in the administration have embraced. Speaking to reporters on Friday, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said the death was “tragic,” but called it “100 percent preventable,” according to The Washington Post.
“Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country? No,” he said.
It’s also dangerous when the government puts all sort of illegal, unnecessary and cruel obstacles in their way to make immigration more difficult.
“If she’s old enough to represent herself in court, then she’s definitely old enough to avoid dying in custody,” Nielsen added.
There are now 15,000 (!) children in cages at the border.
People swung at Nuremberg for this sort of thing.
It’s also dangerous to ignore and withhold medical treatment from that child for 8 ( f#!%ing) hours after incarceration. I hope heads will roll on this one, eventually. " No one could’ve foreseen she would die after days without water!"