Trump Blames Democrats Over Deaths of Migrant Children in U.S. Custody

The comments came on Twitter, where the president spent much of the day denouncing Democrats as the partial government shutdown approached its eighth day over his demand for funding for the wall.

“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,” he wrote in one message, his first public remarks about the deaths. “They can’t. If we had a wall, they wouldn’t even try!”

On Christmas Eve, a boy, 8, identified as Felipe Gómez Alonzo, died in U.S. custody. Authorities said that he had been taken to a hospital after showing what appeared to be signs of sickness. He was released but was taken again to the hospital, where employees were unable to revive him after he had fainted. Nearly three weeks earlier, Jakelin Caal Maquin, 7, died after she had been taken to a Border Patrol station.

Both children had been detained with their fathers after being apprehended at the border.

In pointing to Democrats and their immigration policies, the president overtly injected politics into the children’s deaths and mischaracterized the reasons cited for them, as well as their families’ reactions.

“The two children in question were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol,” the president said. “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!”

Many of the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death remain unknown. It is not clear whether his health deteriorated because of the journey to the United States, neglect by personnel in the various border facilities he was moved to or a combination of those factors.

Border Patrol said Jakelin had not eaten or consumed water for several days before being detained, but her father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cruz, disputed that statement.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.