Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Rodrigo Abd/AP/REX/Shutterstock
AfterU.S. Customs and Border Protection officers used tear gas to determigrants and asylum-seekers — including numerous children — who were approaching a border-crossing station on Sunday, social media users are taking aim at a photo first daughter Ivanka Trump recently tweeted of her son enjoying a fishing trip.
Critics immediately noticed the juxtaposition between smiling, 5-year-oldJoseph Frederick Kushnerand the viral photos of crying children, many shoeless and in diapers, running from U.S. officials deploying tear gas at San Ysidro border crossing near San Diego, California.
“Fishing with my favorite angler,” the mother of three, 37, captioned two photos of her son, who sported a baseball cap and yellow lifejacket as he looked out on a beautiful blue ocean and sky.
In response, multiple followers shared their distaste for the image.
“Your father teargassed kids your son’s age today,” wrote one user.
“Cool. Let’s talk about your daddy … tear gassing children in diapers today. Thoughts, Kremlin Barbie?” added another.
“Wow kids sure do look happy when they aren’t being hit with tear gas!” a fourth wrote.
Some users came to Trump’s defense, however, insisting it was a sweet family moment that didn’t need to be politicized.
“You got to [be] kidding? Right? It’s a nice picture of her son fishing. Why do you have to make it politico? Geez really? It gets so boring,” tweeted one supporter.
U.S. border patrol uses tear gas on migrants at San Ysidro crossing.David Guzmán/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
“We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,” 23-year-old Honduran Ana Zuniga, who had her 3-year-old daughter Valery in her arms, said to theAssociated Press.
On Monday morning, PresidentDonald Trumptweeted that some of the migrants are “stone cold criminals” and that he would not be opposed to closing the border altogether.
Trump’s call for a border wallrevives a central issuefrom his 2016 presidential campaign.
In recent weeks, the presidenthas seized on the caravan as a campaign issue, painting its membersas criminals and invaders, though in fact the group is largely made up of Central American migrants fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries. According toThe New York Times, the migrants travel in caravans for protection against the criminals that stalk their trip north.
U.S. border patrol uses tear gas on migrants at San Ysidro crossing.GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP/Getty
Critics are calling the use of tear gas inhumane.
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“Anyone uncomfortable with spraying tear gas on children is welcome to join the coalition of the moral and the sane,” Sen. Brian Schatz tweeted. “We can argue about other stuff when we’ve got our country back.”
Rodrigo Abd/AP/REX/Shutterstock
“These children are barefoot. In diapers. Choking on tear gas,” California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsomtweeted. “Women and children who left their lives behind — seeking peace and asylum — were met with violence and fear. That’s not my America. We’re a land of refuge. Of hope. Of freedom. And we will not stand for this.”
source: people.com
