Fox News anchor Shepard Smith on Tuesday strongly objected to President Donald Trump’s assertion that migrant children detained in border detention centers are being treated “very well,” pointing out that the conditions these children face would be in violation of the Geneva Convention.
After his acting Customs and Border Protection chief John Sanders revealed he resigned from his position amid furor over reports of squalid and filthy conditions at overcrowded detention camps, the president insisted to reporters that he is “very concerned” with the issue. At the same time, he claimed the conditions were “much better than they were under President Obama.”
Shortly after Trump made his comments, Smith told Fox News viewers that because Trump said “we’re treating the children very well,” he was going to provide actual reporting on “how those children are being treated.”
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Highlighting the “horrendous conditions” at a detention facility in Clint, Texas, the Fox News anchor noted that one lawyer said children less than 10 years of age were taking care of infants and toddlers.
“Their clothes covered in snot,” Smith added. “No access to toothbrushes or toothpaste or soap. Basic necessities for any of us and all the more so for children.”
Referencing a segment from his Monday broadcast, Smith went on to highlight just how awful these kids’ living conditions were.
“We reported accurately here yesterday that were these prisoners of war instead of innocent children, those withholding of those items would be violations of the Geneva Convention,” he declared. “That is what the president considers treating well, the children of migrants that came across the border without documents.”
Smith concluded by reporting that despite the Clint facility being incapable of providing children toothbrushes and soap, 100 children that were transferred elsewhere had been returned to the center.
“Those are the facts,” the anchor added.
