The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“Republicans criticized the Biden administration on Thursday for providing food to infants detained in its custody — effectively suggesting the babies should be starved because of their immigration status.
“The Biden administration has been sending pallets of baby formula for illegal mothers and their babies while American mothers and babies cannot find baby formula,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said at a news conference “This is completely unacceptable, and this needs to end now.”
“Baby formula should go to Americans before illegals,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) wrote on Twitter ’This should not have to be said.’
“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) accused the administration of giving “critical supplies to illegal immigrants before the very people he took an oath to serve. . . .”
“The formula shortage is a crisis. Infants need either breast milk or formula for nutrition until they are at least 1 year old, and breast milk isn’t always an option. Doctors recommend against diluting milk or formula, switching to cow’s milk or making homemade formula. So the need for Americans to access baby formula is very, very real.
“But babies in U.S. government custody need sustenance, too, and their parents don’t have the option of leaving detention to buy supplies. If the government didn’t provide food to the babies in its custody, they would starve.
“The baby formula shortage has become a popular way for Republicans to attack President Joe Biden, although few lawmakers from either party have offered actual solutions to the issue. Immigration is a popular attack line, too, so it’s not much of a surprise that the right would blame immigrant babies for stealing food from American ones.
“The right has demonized undocumented immigrants for years, and the U.S. has a disturbing record of neglecting or mistreating children in its care. In one of the most infamous examples, former President Donald Trump intentionally split children from their parents in an attempt to dissuade immigrants from coming to the United States. . . . The right’s claims about baby formula for undocumented kids fit into the narrative that Democrats are encouraging unauthorized immigration by not being harsher to undocumented people. . . .” – Republicans Criticize Biden for Not Starving Undocumented Immigrant Babies, Elise Foley, Huffpost, 5/12/22 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: No one is “effectively suggesting” that we “starve” babies of any nationality. This is dishonest rhetoric by author Foley to deflect attention from the true issue at hand: the outrageous spectacle of our government giving a benefit to kids of foreign lawbreakers while our parents and kids have to do without it.
Certainly, we have no ethical choice but to feed the babies in detention. The real issue, though, is why are they here in the first place. The reason is that our immigration regulations give illegal alien adults incentive to come if they bring children. With children in tow, they have a greater chance to remain in our country. The Trump Administration instituted reforms which successfully weakened this incentive. Contrary to Foley’s claim, these were actual solutions.
Along with protecting Americans from the costs of illegal immigration, these solutions protected foreign children from irresponsible parents and other adults who would recklessly subject them to the dangers of border crossing. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration repealed most of Trump’s reforms. If they had remained in place, many of the illegal aliens now here would not be present. Consequently, we would not be giving them baby formula that is in short supply for our own countrymen. Americans rightfully resent this situation.
Foley complains that conservatives “demonize” illegal aliens and treat them “harshly.” The truth is that patriots of all political persuasions simply want foreigners to respect and obey our immigration laws. That hardly qualifies as harsh treatment, and—contrary to Foley–the non-enforcement of those laws most definitely encourages illegal immigration.