During her show on Monday night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham said the detention centers where children are being kept after being separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border are “essentially summer camps.” She was defending the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which led to almost 2,000 children being separated from their parents in April and May, according to the Washington Post. In what Ingraham described as “summer camp,” photos and videos have shown children inside chain-link cages and under foil blankets.
According to the Hill, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics said the policy of separating these children from their parents is “child abuse,” again, making the detention centers sound drastically different from any summer camp we’ve ever attended.
Of course, the Internet was not having it. Many people — including activists, politicians and celebrities — took to Twitter to share their thoughts on Ingraham’s comments.
She literally said these children who’ve been snatched from their parents are “essentially at summer camp.” pic.twitter.com/k9VaU4aLju
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 19, 2018
I hope @IngrahamAngle will take her kids to visit Trump’s ‘summer camp’ for a day.
There they might find a decency and compassion their mother is incapable of, and they might one day help heal the world she is damaging.#LauraIngraham
— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) June 19, 2018
detention camps are not summer camps
detention camps are not summer camps
detention camps are not summer camps
detention camps are not summer camps
detention camps are not summer camps
detention camps are not summer camps
detention camps are not summer campscc: @IngrahamAngle
— therealkenidrawoods (@KenidraRWoods_) June 19, 2018
Child detention centers are “summer camps” like Fox News is a “news channel.”
— Josh Comers (@joshcomers) June 19, 2018
.@IngrahamAngle is DELUSIONAL!!! https://t.co/OpratbNZgN
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) June 19, 2018
“As more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more kids are being separated from their parents,” Ingraham said during her show. “And temporarily housed at what are essentially summer camps.” She went on to say that the San Diego Union Tribune had compared the detention centers to “boarding schools.” But many Twitter users couldn’t help but notice some of the obvious differences between the detention centers and summer camps and boarding schools.
If these detention centers are essentially summer camps, will Laura Ingraham recommend sending Republican Congress kids to them? If not, why not? Why are they only good enough for undocumented kids?
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) June 19, 2018
Boy @IngrahamAngle I’m sure you and all your rich white friends can’t wait to send your kids to these “summer camps” and “boarding school” https://t.co/hrBMQjEInt
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) June 19, 2018
.@IngrahamAngle is clueless if she thinks detention centers are like summer camp. Having taught at them, there’s a big difference: Children and parents CHOOSE summer camp and children are free to leave if parents choose.#KeepFamilesTogether #resist #trump #TuesdayThoughts
— Dr. DaShanne Stokes (@DaShanneStokes) June 19, 2018
This is certainly how I remember summer camp as a kid @IngrahamAngle!! You should send your kids and see how much fun they have. #Heartless #KeepFamilesTogether pic.twitter.com/gyIVx0XO2J
— T.Topps (@tntopps) June 19, 2018
Dear Laura Ingraham: You stated detention centers are like “summer camps.” Just curious, the summer camps you attended, did they sound like this? https://t.co/cHzcnLxsQi
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 19, 2018
Really, does anything about this remind you of your summer camp days? We didn’t think so either.
Laura Ingraham is comparing detention centers to summer camps and private schools and I speak from experience when I say there are not enough white people for either of those to be true
— ??Yedoye Travis?? (@ProfessorDoye) June 19, 2018
Laura Ingraham saying the detention centers are like summer camps is like someone saying electroshock therapy is like drinking a Red Bull really fast
— Leanna Renee (@leannuh_renay) June 19, 2018
According to the Huffington Post, when Ingraham quoted the San Diego Union Tribune article, she left out a significant component of the article, which described other aspects of the facility as more prison-like.