Images of immigrant children being separated from their parents have caused shock and horror since President Donald Trump’s new “Zero Tolerance” policy took effect. One particular photo shows the children sleeping in a large cage while covered in foil blankets.
What are the silver blankets immigrant children have been using at border detention facilities? https://t.co/SPGTLjUdG4 pic.twitter.com/U7SHZiisQN
— KATV News (@KATVNews) June 19, 2018
You might recognize the blankets. They are same thermal blankets many people carry in their cars or on camping trips in case of an emergency.
But writer Orli Matlow recognized them from someplace else. The blankets look strikingly similar to a dress worn by Ivanka Trump back in January of 2017.
“Who wore it better,” tweeted Matlow. “Children detained in McAllen, Texas or Ivanka Trump.”
https://twitter.com/HireMeImFunny/status/1008515700535816198
The tweet makes a brutal point, and it got a huge boost when it was retweeted by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Many people saw both the sadness and humor of the tweet.
https://twitter.com/HylianUsual/status/1008619153706635264
https://twitter.com/EmmittZee/status/1008861831518212096
But Trump supporters echoed chairman of the American Conservative Union Matt Schlapp, who on a June 15 broadcast of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, claimed that this detention was “the same way Barack Obama did it.”
.@mschlapp: “There wasn’t outrage over @BarackObama separating kids from adults.” pic.twitter.com/gIEybr3Hlj
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 15, 2018
Idk ask Obama he was the one that kept the children detained like that.
— BOBO (@BOBO_KICK) June 18, 2018
Donald Trump has made similar claims, saying that it was legislation passed by Democrats that led to families being separated at the border.
Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats. Border Security laws should be changed but the Dems can’t get their act together! Started the Wall.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
But both Snopes and Politifact rated these claims as false.
According to the Snopes report:
There is no federal law that stipulates that children and parents be separated at the border, no matter how families entered the United States. An increase in child detainees separated from parents stemmed directly from a change in enforcement policy repeatedly announced by [Attorney General] Sessions in April and May 2018, under which adults (with or without children) are criminally prosecuted for attempting to enter the United States:
And while children were occasionally detained separately from their parents during the Obama administration, it was both a much rarer occurrence, and the time of separation was usually far briefer.
“Obama generally refrained from prosecution in cases involving adults who crossed the border with their kids,” Peter Margulies, an immigration law and national security law professor at Roger Williams University School of Law told Politifact. “In contrast, the current administration has chosen to prosecute adult border-crossers, even when they have kids. That’s a choice — one fundamentally different from the choice made by both Obama and previous presidents of both parties.”
It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time the Ivanka Trump dress/emergency blanket comparison has been made. In fact, someone called out the similarity way back when the dress picture was first posted. At that the time, the comparison was used to protest President Trump’s executive order blocking immigration and travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Who wore it better? @IvankaTrump pic.twitter.com/I5ab22nLNx
— Geoff #FromDC Crawley (@VoiceOfThePhan) January 29, 2017
It seems like Ivanka’s dress is going to be trotted out any time her father starts a humanitarian crisis. If he wants to spare his daughter future embarrassment, Trump might consider either switching over to fleece blankets or being an empathetic person.
The smart money is on new blankets.
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