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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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.
-
Democrats push for ICE accountabilityFeature U.S. citizens shot and violently detained by immigration agents testify at Capitol Hill hearing
-
The price of sporting gloryFeature The Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics kicked off this week. Will Italy regret playing host?
-
Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?Feature Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is Trump's de facto ‘voter fraud’ czar
-
Japan’s Takaichi cements power with snap election winSpeed Read President Donald Trump congratulated the conservative prime minister
-
Trump sues IRS for $10B over tax record leaksSpeed Read The president is claiming ‘reputational and financial harm’ from leaks of his tax information between 2018 and 2020
-
Trump, Senate Democrats reach DHS funding dealSpeed Read The deal will fund most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks
-
Fed holds rates steady, bucking Trump pressureSpeed Read The Federal Reserve voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged
-
Judge slams ICE violations amid growing backlashSpeed Read ‘ICE is not a law unto itself,’ said a federal judge after the agency violated at least 96 court orders
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked with unknown liquidSpeed Read This ‘small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work’
-
Democrats pledge Noem impeachment if not firedSpeed Read Trump is publicly defending the Homeland Security secretary
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
