Democrats on Dead Migrant Child: ‘Devastating,’ ‘Cruel’

Mario Tama/Getty Images
Mario Tama/Getty Images

Democrats are declaring anger, outrage, and emotional solidarity for the child who died after her migrant father brought her into the desert and across the U.S. border.

News of the incident broke late Thursday in southwestern New Mexico, according to the initial Breitbart News report.

“There are no words to capture the horror,” claimed Hillary Clinton, who promised during her 2016 campaign that she would not deport illegal immigrants who cross into the United States to get a job if they do not commit a violent crime.

Likely Democratic 2020 candidate Sen. Kamala Harris quickly showed her interest in the death, even though she opposes the reforms and the border barriers that would reduce the incentive for migrants to bring their children. Those incentives include the 2015 Flores judicial decision, which forces officials to release migrants carrying children after 20 days, as  well as the Democrats’ opposition to President Donald Trump’s May-to-June policy of prosecuting all migrants, including those who bring their children into the desert.

President Donald Trump’s advisor, Steven Miller, was asked about the child’s death by Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. He responded:

Immigration is an emotional issue and it ought to be an emotional issue because it effect people’s lives. And if you want to stop the horrors on the northwards trek — the rape that occurs, the abuse that occurs, the physical assaults, and the death that occurs — then for the love of God, fund the border wall.

Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy excused the child’s alleged father, who may not have alerted U.S officials to his child’s lack of water.

A statement from the Department of Homeland Security noted:

As we have always said, traveling north illegally is extremely dangerous. Drug cartels, human smugglers and the elements pose deadly risks to anyone who comes across the border illegally. Border Patrol always takes care of individuals in their custody and does everything in their power to keep them safe. Every year the Border Patrol saves hundreds of people who are overcome by the elements between our ports of entry.  Unfortunately, despite our best efforts and the best efforts of the medical team treating the child, we were unable to stop this tragedy from occurring. Once again, we are begging parents to not put themselves or their children at risk attempting to enter illegally.  Please present yourselves at a port of entry and seek to enter legally and safely.

On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, our sincerest condolences go out to the family of the child. Border Patrol agents took every possible step to save the child’s life under the most trying of circumstances. As fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, we empathize with the loss of any child.

New York Rep. Jerry Nadler is one of the many Democratic politicians who oppose the border wall and reform of the pro-migration incentives, but he promised to grill Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Nielsen began her pushback Friday morning.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley says Trump’s effort to block cheap-labor migration is “horrific.” The Oregon senator also opposes the border wall and the legal reforms which would end the catch-and-release incentives.

The DHS statement about the incident said:

On December 6, an accompanied Female juvenile detainee (7 years old) began having seizures in USBP custody.  She was in USBP custody for 8 hours. USBP EMT evaluated and determined the child had a 105.7 degree fever.  Local EMS was called and child was transported via Air Ambulance to El Paso.  At the hospital, the child was revived after going into cardiac arrest.  However, the child did not recover and died at the hospital less than 24 hours after being transported. An autopsy is expected, but results may take several weeks. CBP OPR will investigate to ensure all appropriate policies were followed.

Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who nearly won a U.S. Senate seat for Texas in November, says he wants an investigation.

Various pro-migration Democratic staffers, activists, left-wing journalists, and sympathetic activists are trying to highlight the single death along the border. They did not mention the American victims of crime by illegal immigrants or the domestic economic impact of cheap-labor migration.

Actress Alyssa Milano said her “blood is boiling.”

A taxpayer-aided NPR journalist compared the child’s death to organized murder.

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