On the eighth day of the partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is stepping up attacks against Democrats as part of his ongoing demand to try to get his border wall funded through threats. The commander in chief is now saying that Democrats are to blame for the recent deaths of two Guatemalan children who died while in the custody of Border Patrol. The president said that if the wall had been built earlier the children would have never died because they would have never tried to reach the U.S. border in the first place. This marks the first time the president has publicly mentioned the death of the migrant children and comes a day after he vowed a full closure of the southern border if Democrats don’t agree to fund his wall.
“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,” the president wrote on Twitter. “If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try!”
The president then went on to claim that the two children who died at the border this month “were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol.” The president also said the girl who died, Jakelin Caal Maquin, hadn’t been given “water in days,” a contention her father has denied. He did say though that she wasn’t given any water while the two were detained and under the custody of the Border Patrol. Caal died on Dec. 8, less than two days after she was detained by Border Patrol. A cause of death has yet to be determined.
Trump’s comments on Twitter came mere days after Felipe Gómez Alonzo died late on Christmas Eve. Authorities have said the eight-year-old had the flu, but insist more tests are needed to determine a cause of death.
