President Trump is being accused of running immigration detention centers like concentration camps.

On Monday, an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died while in Customs and Border Protection custody. He's the second migrant child to die in CBP custody in the span of a month. It should be noted that both immigrant children died from similar flu-like illnesses.

In the case of Jakelin Caal Maquin, the first migrant child, she appeared to be in good health when she was apprehended, but her condition quickly deteriorated on a 90-minute bus ride from Antelope Wells to the Lordsburg Border Patrol station with her father. Border patrol agents requested emergency medical technicians and reportedly did everything in their power to provide medical assistance as soon as they were notified.

In the case of the 8-year-old Guatemalan boy who died in New Mexico, he went to the hospital several days before his death, was diagnosed with a common cold and fever, and was given prescriptions for ibuprofen and for amoxicillin, an antibiotic. The boy returned to the hospital on Christmas Eve with nausea and vomiting and died shortly after being admitted.

But many of Trump’s critics seem to be ignoring that the spread of disease is a risk that many migrants bear in making the long journey into the United States.



https://t.co/HUvsqQBPI1 Another small child has died at the border. Trump’s sadism and white nationalist impulses are turning deadly. — Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) December 26, 2018

Donald Trump's day so far



- Hasn't tweeted in 16 hours

- Really did fake his bone spurs to dodge Vietnam War

- Eight year old boy dies after being detained in his immigrant concentration camps

- Trump is Hitler and he needs to go

- Seriously, fuck this guy

- It's still only 10am — Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) December 26, 2018



Some blame the Border Patrol because the children died after encountering Border Patrol officials. This is like blaming the fire department for fires, because whenever a house burns down, firemen are there.

Even more off-base is the implication that troubles at immigration facilities are unique to the Trump era.

In May 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union reported from a review of 30,000 pages of documents they obtained that tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico were repeatedly beaten, sexually abused, and deprived of food and medical care by Border Patrol agents between the years of 2009 to 2014 — that was during the Obama administration.

The U.S. government deserves criticism whenever it mistreats anyone in its custody. But the rage against Trump is currently untethered to the facts.