Laura Ingraham has come under fire after calling immigration detention centers for children ‘essentially summer camps’.
The Fox News host was discussing Donald Trump’s policy to separate immigrant children from their parents when she made the controversial comment on Monday.
‘As more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more kids are being separated from their parents,’ she said on The Ingraham Angle.
‘And temporarily housed at what are, essentially, summer camps.’
Ingraham’s words horrified many amid a weekend in which pictures have shown immigrant children lined up in a series of cages created by metal fencing at these detention centers.
Laura Ingraham has come under fire after calling immigration detention centers for children ‘essentially summer camps’
The inside of a dormitory at the Tornillo facility, a shelter for children of detained migrants, is seen in this photo provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services, in Tornillo, Texas
One particular photo showed 20 children lying on dark green mats inside a cage, only covered by thin emergency space blankets.
Another shows children in a single-file line sitting next to one another.
Many on Twitter expressed outrage at Ingraham’s claims, including Parkland survivor Dave Hogg – a frequent critic of the Fox News host.
‘Laura Ingraham, like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, would happily defend genocide if the Trump administration asked them to do so,’ he wrote.
Author Anthony Breznican joked: ‘Laura Ingraham isn’t going to hell. She’s going to an “intense sauna”‘.
Many on Twitter expressed outrage at Ingraham’s claims, including Parkland survivor Dave Hogg – a frequent critic of the Fox News host
Many commenters expressed confusion at Ingraham’s vision for summer camps.
‘Ah yes, who else remembers singing kum ba yah, roasting marshmallows, cage living, and a friendly game of let’s never see your mommy and daddy again,’ wrote Danny Deraney.
Another joked about what a summer camp would look like if it was run by Ingraham.
‘Your child will learn how to properly fold a foil emergency blanket and how to decorate the inside of a cage,’ JD Durkin quipped.
‘Sign up now for a special lesson in basketball dribbling and mocking school shooting survivors. Act fast,’ he added, quoting Ingraham’s recent controversies with Hogg and NBA star Lebron James.
Others called on the public to boycott Ingraham, while some challenged the Fox News host to send her own children to the detention centers.
Immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new zero tolerance policy by the Trump administration, are shown walking in single file between tents in their compound next to the Mexican border in Tornillo
Ingraham has come under fire after more and more photos of these detention shelters have been released. Pictured is the Tornillo facility
Children can be seen walking single file as they are shown their new homes in these ‘tent cities’ for separated families
The Tornillo facility is seen in this photo provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services, in Tornillo, Texas
‘Great @IngrahamAngle – sounds like a fun summer plan for YOUR kids. Send them down to the detention camps – maybe one of those fancy tents – and you can just stay home and work,’ wrote Amy Siskind.
In May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in which all those apprehended entering the US illegally, including those seeking asylum, would be criminally charged, which generally leads to children being separated from their parents.
On Friday, it was revealed that nearly 2,000 children were separated from adults at the border between mid-April and the end of May.
Those children are now living in detention centers along the US-Mexico border.
Trump’s policy has drawn condemnation from medical professionals, religious leaders, and immigration activists, who warn that some children could suffer lasting psychological trauma.
Many of these tent cities are surrounded by metal fences, as pictured here at the Tornillo facility in Texas
On Friday, it was revealed that nearly 2,000 children were separated from adults at the border between mid-April and the end of May. Pictured is the Tornillo facility
Anne Chandler, the director of the Houston office of Tahirih Justice Center said she’s spoken with several parents who said they were told their children were going to get a bath before they were separated
The audio was released just a day after it was revealed border agents have been telling illegal immigrant parents that they are taking their children ‘for a bath’ before separating them
American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr Colleen Kraft has even called the policy ‘government-sanctioned child abuse’.
Kraft, who toured an immigration detention center herself, revealed chilling details about a room in which almost every toddler was silent in shock.
‘I can’t describe to you the room I was in with the toddlers,’ she told CNN.
Normally toddlers are rambunctious and running around. We had one child just screaming and crying, and the others were really silent.’
‘This is not normal activity or brain development with these children.’
Critics of the policy have only continued to pile as more stories, pictures, and even chilling audio have been released from these detention centers.
Children were seen sleeping side-by-side in a cell inside the McAllen detention center, where one teen says she has been changing a baby’s diaper, who she doesn’t know, because the baby was separated from her family
On Friday, it was revealed that nearly 2,000 children were separated from adults at the border between mid-April and the end of May. Those children (pictured) are now living in detention centers along the US-Mexico border
Other photos show children in single-file lines and sitting next to one another like ‘caged-animals’
Anne Chandler, the director of the Houston office of Tahirih Justice Center, said she’s spoken with several parents who were told their children were going to get washed, before guards informed them they would never see their kids again.
‘The officers say, “I’m going to take your child to get bathed.” That’s one we see again and again. “Your child needs to come with me for a bath,”‘ Chandler told Texas Monthly.
‘The child goes off, and in a half an hour, twenty minutes, the parent inquires, “Where is my five-year-old? Where’s my seven-year-old? This is a long bath.” And they say, “You won’t be seeing your child again.”‘
Chandler said that in some cases agents simply tell the parents that they are taking their children away.
‘And when the parent asks, “When will we get them back?” they say, “We can’t tell you that,”‘ she said.
And on Monday, horrific audio was released that captured border agents cracking jokes while crying children could be heard calling for their parents.
The McAllen facility is reportedly where more kids are separated from their parents than anywhere else in the US
Inside the old warehouse, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing
About 1,100 illegal immigrants (pictured) are being held at McAllen detention center in crowded conditions, including children who have been separated from their families
The audio, which is believed to have been recorded at an immigration facility along the border, was released by ProPublica.
The recording was of six-year-old Alison Jimena Valencia Madrid, who was separated from her mother last week at a US Customs and Border Protection facility.
Throughout the audio Alison and other children are repeatedly heard screaming ‘Mami’ and ‘Papa’ just moments before the border agent drowns out their sobs with a joke.
‘Well, we have an orchestra here,’ he’s heard saying. ‘What’s missing is a conductor.’