Bernie Sanders tweeted out a Reuters story that linked to a story that had been retracted by the news organization because it cited statistics from almost five years ago.
The independent Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate sent out the article titled “U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children in detention: U.N. study” to his 8.8 million followers with the caption, “Under Trump, America leads the world in locking up little kids—including 100,000 children at the border. This is immoral.”
The data was actually from 2015 when Barack Obama was president.
The headline on the link remained intact, though when clicked, the article actually notes how the entire story had been retracted and bore a new headline, “Story on U.N. study on child detentions withdrawn.”
The body text read, “A Nov. 18 story headlined ‘U.S. has world’s highest rate of children in detention – U.N. study’ is withdrawn. The United Nations issued a statement on Nov. 19, saying the number was not current but was for the year 2015. No replacement story will be issued.”
Other news organizations, such as AFP, noted Tuesday on Twitter that the stories were being deleted.
“The author of the report has clarified that his figures do not represent the number of children currently in migration-related US detention, but the total number of children in migration-related US detention in 2015,” AFP wrote. “We will delete the story.”
AFP is withdrawing this story.
The author of the report has clarified that his figures do not represent the number of children currently in migration-related US detention, but the total number of children in migration-related US detention in 2015.
We will delete the story. https://t.co/p30UjEWl7u
— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 19, 2019
Sanders, 78, supports loosening regulations on immigration. According to his website, he “opposes the immigration enforcement practices, known as the Zero Tolerance Policy, which are responsible for the separation of undocumented parents from their children at detention facilities near the Mexican border.”
Which country has the world’s highest rate of child detention?
? Botswana
? Sri Lanka
? Mexico
✅ United StatesUnder Trump, America leads the world in locking up little kids—including 100,000 children at the border. This is immoral. https://t.co/aCxf8Zz0SO
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 19, 2019
