Social media was set ablaze this afternoon with allegations of CBP holding kids hostage. Rachel Maddow and an MSNBC contributor spread the patently absurd story, accusing CBP of purposely keeping three children in custody at Chicago O’Hare Airport to try to lure the parents in for detainment. This makes no sense for a variety of reasons and turned out to be completely false, which we’ll cover in a moment.

But first, here are the accusations.

The girls are age 9, 10, and 13. They are US Citizens. Customs & Border Protection had been holding them at O'Hare Airport since 3AM. Reports now that they were just released after protesters showed up at the terminal with signs: "Let the Children Go"https://t.co/53HZnbVscN — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) July 18, 2019

CBP is reportedly detaining 3 US citizen children in Chicago to get their non-citizen parents to come forward. We need to know more about this. It sounds both illegal & precariously close to tactics fascist dictators use, if true. https://t.co/4mhFTMHcD4 — Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) July 18, 2019

It’s pretty infuriating to see this pampered liberal pretend she’s fighting Nazis by spreading fake accusations of which she had no verification.

So what actually happened?

Three children showed up at O’Hare with an adult cousin. The adult cousin (a Mexican citizen) was found not eligible for entry. This happens to thousands of people of all races and ethnic backgrounds every single day at ports of entry across the United States. There is a laundry list of reasons why someone might be found inadmissible and having a visa does not automatically get you through customs, nor does even having a U.S. passport for that matter.

At that point, CBP contacted the mother of the children. It is required by law that she or another legal guardian come take custody of them. Because she is an illegal alien though, she didn’t want to go to the airport. Instead, for the next 13 hours, she played games by sending a lawyer down there and eventually officials from the Mexican consulate. Some are trying to blame CBP for the kids being there so long, but it’s clearly the mother’s fault. She could have sent the Pope down there and the law still doesn’t allow CBP to hand children over to non-guardians.

Finally, after much negotiation, the mother herself decided to show up and the children were given to her. There was no trap and the children were not being used as bait. CBP were simply following the law. Furthermore, CBP doesn’t do interior enforcement, ICE does, so the entire premise was ridiculous from the beginning.

There are false reports circulating that CBP is detaining 3 US citizen children at O’Hare. The children arrived with a Mexican citizen that was deemed inadmissible. By law, they could only be released to a parent/legal guardian. Their mother has picked them up without incident. — CBP (@CBP) July 18, 2019

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) also tried to get a photo-op out of this and only made things worse.

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky had just landed at O’Hare International Airport from Washington, D.C. when she got word of the girls’ situation and headed over to the International Terminal as the situation was unfolding Thursday afternoon. ”I feel that it’s a kind of kidnapping of children by our government and I am really fed up,” Schakowsky said. “They created a situation that didn’t have to be and I am so resentful for this.” Schakowsky attempted to meet with children to check their well being before they were released but said agents didn’t allow her.

Of course she wasn’t allowed to check on them. CBP can’t let strangers, even if they are elected officials, in to see children that aren’t theirs. No one “kidnapped” anyone and that kind of language is incredibly inciting and dangerous.

This kind of garbage is going to get someone else killed. We’ve already had one person die this past week after being incited to try to firebomb an ICE facility he was convinced was a “concentration camp,” clearly motivated by the rhetoric Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was using. No Democrat has condemned the attack nor even attempted to stop their incitement. The media don’t care and they are actually out there pushing more incitement via fake news stories like this.

Many CBP agents are actually minorities themselves. They are not the Gestapo and for Democrats and the media to keep playing this game is disgusting. Do we really have to wait until an agent is murdered before this crap stops? I fear the answer is yes.

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