The Biden administration’s first immigrant detention facility for children opened this week in response to the growing demand for facilities as the situation on the U.S. southern border hits crisis levels, which experts have warned for months would happen due to President Joe Biden’s policies.
“The emergency facility — a vestige of the Trump administration that was open for only a month in summer 2019 — is being reactivated to hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17,” The Washington Post reported. “Government officials say the camp is needed because facilities for migrant children have had to cut capacity by nearly half because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the number of unaccompanied children crossing the border has been inching up, with January reporting the highest total — more than 5,700 apprehensions — for that month in recent years.”
The Post’s report noted that left-wing activists were furious by the decision made by Biden since the “Trump-era facility” was a source of “protests and controversy.”
“It’s unnecessary, it’s costly, and it goes absolutely against everything [President] Biden promised he was going to do,” Linda Brandmiller, an immigration lawyer, said. “It’s a step backward, is what it is. It’s a huge step backward.”
The nearly 70-acre facility has its own workout facilities, classrooms, barber shop, hair salon, emergency services, and water supply. The Biden administration has roughly 7,000 migrant children current in its custody spread across multiple facilities.
The Post noted that Mark Weber, a spokesperson for the Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, said that the facilities were demonized during the Trump-era because people falsely associated them with detention facilities that are run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which removes criminal illegal aliens from the U.S. and noted that children always received good care under Trump.
A similar story about the large uptick in illegal immigration on the Southern Border by CBS News referred to the facilities as “shelters for migrant children.”
Online, critics slammed the way that the stories were framed, noting the media and left-wing activists often claimed that the Trump administration held children in “cages.”
Donald Trump Jr. wrote: “I believe you mean ‘Cages’ hence the bars on the windows.”
I believe you mean "Cages" hence the bars on the windows. https://t.co/5UpLIfY3rd
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 23, 2021
Reason Senior Editor Robby Soave noted: “Aw it’s like an adorable ‘lil summer camp vibe now, thank you mainstream media.”
Aw it's like an adorable 'lil summer camp vibe now, thank you mainstream media https://t.co/qUy5UUY9Zr
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) February 23, 2021
Glenn Beck wrote: “Just for the record, the Biden Administration IS separating children and parents, and building trailer park cages to hold those children. Where is the outrage from the left. We will interpret your silence as confirmation you never actually cared about kids ‘in cages.’”
Just for the record, the Biden Administration IS separating children and parents, and building trailer park cages to hold those children. Where is the outrage from the left. We will interpret your silence as confirmation you never actually cared about kids ‘in cages.’ @AOC https://t.co/gHFse4ZGfX
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) February 23, 2021
Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs wrote: “Pardon me but.. these ‘migrant facilities for children’ appear to have what look to be bars on the windows. I know they’re not the ‘cages’ we saw during the Trump era, for those could only appear during Republican presidencies. Anyway.”
https://twitter.com/RLHeinrichs/status/1364053813469077506
Other notable responses included:
cages migrant facilities pic.twitter.com/Oyznq804fV
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) February 23, 2021
Clearly @JoeBiden got rid of the cages by just calling them shelters. https://t.co/WRMHE30vqS
— AJ Olding (@AndrewOlding) February 23, 2021
The new @JoeBiden/@KamalaHarris baby prison is actually a re-opened Trump facility. As Biden promised, nothing fundamentally is going to change. pic.twitter.com/RtmD3CHy8b
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) February 23, 2021
Kids in cages is now “migrant facility for children.” https://t.co/AcfgIwFI1m
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) February 23, 2021
“Cages” are now “facilities” because the president is now Biden. https://t.co/MuwsRBx1U4
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) February 23, 2021
The cages shall now be called “migrant facility for children”. Problem solved. https://t.co/N4MIOdOXMb
— Chris Barron 🇺🇸 (@ChrisRBarron) February 23, 2021
Kids lovingly eased away from undocumented parents to enjoy fun vacation in Uncle Joe’s cozy Not-a-Cages.™️ https://t.co/x9vRCNcwgY
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) February 23, 2021