While the inhumane treatment of people at the U.S.-Mexico Border isn’t a secret, the actual human rights atrocities that are being allowed and encouraged by the Trump administration should enrage every American.
It’s recently been reported that a 7-year-old migrant girl from Guatemala died while in Border Patrol custody due to dehydration and shock. The Washington Post broke the news that this young girl had been in Border Patrol custody for approximately eight hours in the New Mexico desert. Citing Customs and Border Protection records, the girl had started having seizures and when her temperature was taken by emergency responders, it read 105.7 degrees. The girl was flown to a children’s hospital in El Paso but died less than 24 hours later.
On Fox & Friends, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was brought on to talk about this tragedy, and her response is exactly what we’d expect from the Trump administration. Her response was absolutely heartless, replying “it is what it is.” She also blamed the incident on “how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally.” Here are her exact words:
It’s heart-wrenching, is what it is. And my heart goes out to the family, for all of DHS. This is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. This family chose to cross illegally. What happened here is that they were 90 miles away from where we could process them. They came in such a large crowd that it took our border patrol folks a couple times [Nielsen laughs here] to get them all. We gave immediate care. We’ll continue to look into the situation. But again, I cannot stress how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally.”
You can watch the interview below:
The Trump administration is unwilling to take any responsibility for this, and it’s a crime against humanity.
Featured image via screen capture
