Trump Places All Blame for Child Migrant Deaths ‘Strictly’ on Dems and Their ‘Pathetic’ Immigration Policies

On Saturday, President Donald Trump left no room for debate over who, according to him, was responsible for the tragic deaths of two migrant children at the southern border this month.

Echoing others in his administration, Trump blamed flawed immigration policies. Those, along with congressional Democrats, were the sole two culprits, he argued on Twitter:

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

“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 said.

His tweets came in the midst of a border crisis in which thousands of migrants tried entering the U.S. and the government shut down as politicians failed to compromise on a border security package.

Trump has insisted that without the $5 billion he requested in funding for a border wall, he would not reopen the government — a prospect that seemed even less likely as Democrats prepared to take over the House of Representatives in the new year.

The wall, Trump asserted, would prevent people from even trying to cross the border.

The president also tried to defend Customs and Border Protection, claiming that the two highly publicized deaths resulted from circumstances outside of his administration’s control.

“The two children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol,” he said. Those two deaths prompted calls for investigations from both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

When the Department of Homeland Security responded to the boy’s death, it announced new measures to better the situation at the border. But as IJR previously reported, it similarly blamed an immigration system that incentivized illegal crossings.