Trump claims migrant kids were already ill before they were detained

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump claims that two Guatemalan children who died in US custody were already ill, yet both young migrants passed initial health screenings by border officials.

As Democrats criticised Trump for also tweeting on Saturday that Democratic immigration policies were responsible for the deaths, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen visited medical officials and Border Patrol agents at the Arizona and Texas southern borders amid promises of more wellness screenings for migrant children.

In Guatemala, the mother of eight-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo, who died on Christmas Eve, said he was healthy when he left with his father on their journey hoping to migrate to the United States.

“When he called me, he told me not to worry because he was fine,” Catarina Alonzo said from the family’s home in the remote Guatemalan village of Yalambojoch in Nenton municipality, Huehuetenango province, 400km west of Guatemala City.

Trump, whose administration has faced widespread criticism over the deaths, pointed on Twitter at Democrats “and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally”.

He also said both children “were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol”.

The tweets were his first comments on Felipe’s death and the Dec 8 death of Jakelin Caal, seven.

An initial screening of Jakelin “revealed no evidence of health issues”, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Dec 14.

It wasn’t until several hours later that Jakelin’s father Nery Caal told agents she was “sick and vomiting”, CBP said.

Attorneys for the Caal family have also denied claims that Nery “hadn’t given her water in days”, as Trump wrote.

CBP said on Tuesday that agents logged 23 welfare checks of Felipe and his father in the first few days the two were detained.

Felipe’s father Agustin Gomez told a Guatemalan official that the boy first showed signs of illness on Monday morning, the day he died.