Yesterday it was reported that a seven year-old girl from Guatemala had died of dehydration and exhaustion only hours after she had reached the other side of freedom's door and was in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol with her father and a large group of migrants in the New Mexico desert.
Today, the White House called the death a "tragic situation", but said flatly the Trump administration did not take responsibility for the death.
"Does the administration take responsibility for a parent taking a child on a trek through Mexico to get to this country? No," said spokesman Hogan Gidley.
And then, Homeland Security Secretary Kierstjen Nielsen called the death "a very sad example of the dangers" migrants face when they try to illegally enter the U.S. Could she be any more sympathetic?
According to Border Patrol records, the girl and her father were detained the evening of Dec. 6 south of Lordsburg, NM along with about 160 other people who tried to turn themselves in.
More than eight hours later, the child began having seizures and emergency responders later measured her body temperature at 105.7 degrees. According to the Border Patrol, she "reportedly had not eaten or consumed water for several days."
The young girl, Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, died less than 24 hours after being transported by helicopter to a hospital in El Paso.
The White House spokesman, Gidley, said the death was "100 percent preventable" and urged Congress to "disincentivized people from coming up from the border and encourage them to do it the right way, the legal way, then those types of deaths, those types of assaults, those types of rapes, the child smuggling, the human trafficking, that would all come to an end. And we hope Democrats join the president."
Meanwhile, take a listen to this song, "Freedom's Door," provided to Not Fake News by its author, award winning song writer Marv Conan. I thought it was particularly appropriate to share today, as little Jakelin gave her life as she and her dad simply hoped desperately for a better life on the other side of freedom's door.
Tragically, it was slammed shut by the Trump administration.