The Democrat House Oversight and Reform Committee deleted tweets showing pictures of migrants behind fencing that were taken in 2014. The pictures were part of graphics that criticized President Trump’s handling of the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Last week, members of our committee visited a detention center at the southern border and discovered grotesque treatment of children. This week, we are examining the inhumane treatment of the children in these detention centers,” the accompanying tweet said.
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A second graphic that was posted from the Committee on July 2 was also deleted as the picture was taken in 2014.
The deletions were prompted after the Republican Oversight and Reform Committee’s Twitter account called out the Democrats.
You all know that’s a picture from 2014, right? Remind us who was President then ? https://t.co/Z6uE04wALq
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) July 9, 2019
.@OversightDems, you deleted the last one. But this picture is also from 2014. https://t.co/z5irfimC8d
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) July 9, 2019
“House Democrats are promoting their ‘civil rights’ hearing on ‘kids in cages’ and ‘inhumane treatment’ with a photo from 2014, when Joe Biden was Vice President. So dishonest!,” Trump’s campaign posted on Twitter with a screenshot of the tweet.
“The photo was an error, and it has been removed. But there is simply no comparison between the actions of the Obama Administration and the Trump Administrations,” a committee aide on the Democratic side told the Washington Examiner. “The Obama Administration did not separate children from their families and create dehumanizing conditions as a way to deter immigration and asylum, which is the stated policy of the Trump Administration. The Obama Administration separated children only in an extremely small number of cases when there was a true danger to the child’s safety.”
The Associated Press had republished the photographs in 2018 after they circulated on social media, with users claiming they were taken in 2018: “The photos, taken by The Associated Press, were from 2014, during the Obama administration, but were presented by liberal activists as if they showed the effects of Trump’s immigration policy now.”
Attention to the conditions of the migrant detention centers at the national level have been renewed as Trump has taken a tougher stance on immigration. Trump told reporters on Sunday he plans on inviting members of the press to tour the detention centers.
