During a White House news conference on Monday, DHS Secretary Nielsen debunked the media’s claims that all child border crossers as being taken from their parents.
However, Nielsen corrected the media.
She was asked, “How is this not specifically child abuse for these innocent children who are indeed being separated from their parents?”
Nielson responded, “So I want to be clear on a couple of other things. The vast majority, vast, vast majority of children who are in the care of HHS right now — 10,000 of the 12,000 — were sent here alone by their parents. That’s when they were separated.”
She continued, “10,000 of those currently in custody were sent by their parents with strangers undertake a completely dangerous and deadly travel alone. We now care for them. We have high standards. We give them meals, we give them education, we give them medical care. There’s videos, there’s TVs, I visited the detention centers myself. That would be my answer to that question.”