DHS defends locking up critically ill baby by blaming migrant mother: ‘The mother chose’

The Department of Homeland Security sparked outrage Tuesday after reports revealed that a two-month old baby with bronchitis was being held in an immigration detention center in Texas, and on Wednesday, DHS went on an unhinged posting spree defending its lockup of the critically ill infant.

The infant, Juan Nicolás, is currently incarcerated at the South Texas Family Residential Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Dilley, Texas, a facility that’s become infamous for the amount of children held within its walls.

Nicolás was detained with her mother, who relayed to Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that her newborn became “unresponsive” on Tuesday due to their condition, but was still discharged from the hospital and placed back in detention.

Several Democratic lawmakers and figures took to social media to condemn Nicolás’ detention, such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who called DHS' handling of the matter outright “cruelty.”

“Last night, Juan Nicolás was rushed to the hospital after choking on his own vomit & being unable to breathe,” Hollen wrote in a social media post on X Tuesday night. “This demands accountability – not a blank check for more cruelty.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, DHS did not refute any of the accusations leveled against it, and instead, went on a social media posting spree responding to several critics to cast blame for the infant’s dire situation on his mother.

“The mother chose to take her child into custody with her,” the official DHS account on X wrote Wednesday in a post shared several times and in response to several critics. “The mother chose to enter and remain in the country illegally. The mother chose not to take $2,600 and free flight home.”

Conditions for migrants at ICE detention facilities have been described by observers as “inhumane,” with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) having toured a California ICE detention center last month and leaving “horrified” at what he described as a blatant “violation of human rights.” ICE has also been accused of unlawfully hiding the deaths of at least eight migrants in detention.