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

(Image credit: Oliver Douliery/Getty Images)

last updated 3 July 2019

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.

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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."

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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