Trump blames Democrats for migrant children's deaths, promotes his border wall plan
President Trump tweeted Saturday afternoon to blame congressional Democrats for the deaths of Jakelin Caal Maquin, the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in early December in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) custody, and Felipe Gomez Alonzo, the 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in CPB custody this past week:
In a subsequent tweet, Trump claimed the Jakelin's father took responsibility for her fate by admitting he did not give her water:
In reality, a Guatemalan consul said the father did not fault CPB for the girl's death, but the father's lawyers said he made sure she had food and water and seeks an investigation into her death. "Jakelin's father took care of Jakelin — made sure she was fed and had sufficient water," the attorneys stated.
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Trump has refused to sign a spending package to end the partial government shutdown until congressional Democrats allocate about $5 billion for border wall construction. In a third tweet, he said Senate Democrats forced the shutdown by refusing to approve the spending earlier this year.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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