Trump is so bad he is deporting children…with cancer!!
That was the headline on every left-leaning publication from Rolling Stone to Vanity Fair, but how accurate is it? Simple fact checking reveals that this outlandish claim is a far fetched as it seems. In an article titled “The Trump Administration Now Wants to Deport Children With Cancer”, Rolling Stone magazine accompanied the headline with a photo of a young teen writhing in pain. How accurate is this claim, and is the administration preventing children from getting medical care?
The story is based on a claim that President Trump is cancelling a “policy that allows migrants to not be deported while they or their family members receive life-saving medical treatments.” That sounds like a horrible scenario, but a closer look at the facts shows that this inflammatory headline and statement is simply not true.
Fact-checking reveals that there is no policy regarding illegal aliens with cancer – kids or adults. The only thing that happened, and that apparently triggered these headlines, is a change in administrative details. Cases are determined individually, originally evaluated by USCIS; now they will be determined by ICE.
Screaming headlines were quick to follow, claiming President Trump was signing the death warrants for kids and comparing him to Adolf Hitler. The publications reporting the story were not fringe media, they included Rolling Stone, the Hill and Vanity Fair (who made the Hitler comparison).
Even presidential hopeful Joe Biden was quick to jump on the story with exaggerated claims.
“In just the last few days, we’ve learned his newest target is children,” the Democrat said. “Like every bully in history, he’s trying to make himself seem stronger by picking on the most vulnerable … I thought even he would understand that kids suffering from cancer, cystic fibrosis, and other diseases they can’t get treatment for in their countries were off limits. But like so many other things he’s said, cruelty seems to be the point…They all have to be unplugged and gone. Ladies and gentlemen — Neuroblastoma! — I can’t imagine, if I had been an immigrant, my son Beau, when he came home from the war, and he ended up having stage 4 glioblastoma…and them telling me, ‘No, unplug him, send him home.’ That’s what it is! That’s what he’s doing! And it’s immoral, and it’s wrong!”
Like many of Biden’s recent statements, this one is incorrect and exaggerated for emotional impact. Biden also claimed that the president was removing citizenship from the children of military personnel born overseas. This claim was so outrageous that NBC had to backpedal and issue a clarification (that the children of US military service members are indeed US citizens).
The recent policy announcement does not prevent children from receiving care or strip the children of military personnel of their citizenship when they are serving overseas. The story that began with progressive publications became major news after Biden’s flawed but emotional comments. While the publications now acknowledge the errors, the inflammatory headlines remain.
