(Image source from: MarketWatch)
President Donald Trump has been facing intense criticism for blaming Democrats for the death of two migrant children in the custody of the United States authorities over the past few weeks as the partial close down of the federal government get into the ninth with signs it is probable to proceed into next year.
The president as well misrepresented the father of one the two children and blame him for the death.
The president had cited the killing of an Indian-origin police officer Ronil Singh in California by an illegal immigrant for gathering support for a border wall, a difference of opinion over whose funding, between him and Democrats has shut down a fourth of the federal government.
On December 6, the 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, from Guatemala, died in the custody of the U.S. border authorities just hours after being taken into detention along with her father for crossing into the United States illicitly through the Mexico border. A few days later, on Christmas Eve, Felipe Gómez Alonzo, an eight-year-old boy also from Guatemala, died in the U.S. custody. He and his father had been apprehended a week before.
Authorities are probing the deaths but have said, pending final outcome, Maquin was severely dehydrated and Felipe was diagnosed with influenza. The girls' family has alleged that they had been denied water four hours while in detention, while border officials have disputed that account and said food and water were made available to them and the girl had had both after days of having none.
As outrage swelled over the deaths, the U.S. authorities stepped up medical screening of children in their custody along the border. And the White House at the start, after Jakelin's death, dismissed any responsibility and sought to blame it on those undertaking the long and dangerous journey.
In his first comments on the deaths, Trump sought to blame Democrats saying: "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!" he wrote on Twitter.
In a continuing post, he wrote: "The two 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!"
The president's endeavor to deflect blame was seen as politicizing the deaths, and Democrats responded angrily. "Obviously nothing is too low or cruel for you," Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter. "A collective New Year's wish: For the sake of our country, you can stop now."
And the U.S. congressman Joaquin Castro, who is slated to assume the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, posted this on the microblogging site: "You slander Jakelin's memory and re-traumatize her family by spreading lies about why she died. You don't deserve to represent our nation at any level."
The president and Democrats are in a standstill on funding for the border wall that Trump had promised to build as a candidate. He has sought $5 billion and is willing to come down, but Democrats want to allocate only $1.3 billion, for boosting border security, not the wall.
The administration is not calling it a wall any longer though. Trump has said it will be made of steel-slats, and his outgoing chief of staff John Kelly told the Los Angeles Times in an interview, the administration gave up on a concrete wall a long time ago.
"The president still says 'wall' - oftentimes frankly he'll say 'barrier' or 'fencing,' now he's tended toward steel slats," Kelly told LA Times.
"But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it. - we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it."
By Sowmya Sangam
