GOP congressman says detained migrant children are 'free to leave at any time'

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) has an interesting take on how migrant detention centers work.

The Republican appeared Monday night on MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes to defend Customs and Border Protection for its alleged abuse of migrant children detained along the border. After all, as Burgess put it, if the children had a problem with their reportedly unsanitary living conditions, they could just leave.

"There's not a lock on the door. Any child is free to leave at anytime, but they don't," Burgess told MSNBC on the Monday segment. "You know why? Because they are well taken care of," he added.

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Criticism of CBP under President Trump has surged in the past week as lawyers claim nearly 300 children at a Clint, Texas detention center weren't provided with toothbrushes and soap and lacked sufficient medical care. Most of the children were moved from the facility to a tent camp by Monday, but about 100 of them were reportedly moved back to the facility on Tuesday. Burgess mentioned that he hadn't visited the facility in Clint, but disputed the reported conditions, saying that "the hatred for this president is so intense that people will say anything."

Burgess failed to mention how children as young as two and a half years old would fend for themselves if they left the detention facility, let alone how they would open the door.