Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
President Donald Trump on Saturday said that Democrats are to blame for the deaths of migrant children detained at the border. Felipe Alonzo-Gomez, an eight-year-old Guatemalan migrant, fell fatally ill on Christmas morning while in the custody of Border Patrol. His passing was came two weeks after the death of 7-year-old migrant Jakelin Caal Maquin. She was also in Department of Homeland Security custody. “Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally. They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try! The two.....” Trump tweeted at 1:30 p.m. His follow-up tweet six minutes later said “ ...children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol. The father of the young girl said it was not their fault, he hadn’t given her water in days. Border Patrol needs the Wall and it will all end. They are working so hard & getting so little credit!” In the wake of the two children’s deaths, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen vowed to conduct inspections of borderland stations and demand “more thorough hands-on” medical screenings of the 1,400 to 1,500 minors detained at the border daily.