Deaths Of Children At The Border: The Rest Of The Story

Recently there have been three news reports of children dying in the U.S. while in custody of the U.S. Border Patrol. That phrase, “while in custody of” is used to imply that the child would be alive today if only the Border Patrol had let them illegally trespass without interruption. If a child dies in a hospital, the media rarely claims that the child died “while in the custody of” a hospital. It doesn’t have the same impact. Every media outlet in America knows that a news story about the death of a child is emotionally heartbreaking. Children are a vulnerable subset of the population like the elderly and the disabled. Nearly every adult holds in their heart the feeling that children need our protection.

Nevertheless the liberal media exploits the sensitivity we have when hearing about the death of a child. In today’s political environment, nothing is sacred. Politicizing the treatment of children of parents illegally crossing into the country gets attention mainly—and only if—the left can weaponize and hammer people who want secure borders, or support President Trump and law enforcement like the Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In the first news report a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died, “after being taken into U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Protection,” the story said. Her father dragged her on a 2000-mile journey from northern Guatemala. Her father stated she was in good health during the screening process. Her health deteriorated on a 90-minute bus ride to the Border Patrol station. She was immediately transported to a hospital. An autopsy report indicated that she died from sepsis, a bacteria found in her lungs, adrenal glands, liver, and spleen. I am not a doctor, but I can safely presume that she had that bacteria in her long before she hit the U.S. border. This is very sad, but it isn’t the fault of U.S. border policy. It can be said that her father was negligent in dragging her on that dangerous journey. Why is that fact not being raised by the liberal media?

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