Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen blasted for response to death of 7 year old girl who died in Border Patrol custody

Offers Condolences to Family of 7 Year Old Who Died in Custody – and 'All of DHS'?

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen is sending her condolences to the family of the 7-year old girl who died while in custody of dehydration and exhaustion. But in the same breath Secretary Nielsen, whose department is responsible for separating thousands of children at the U.S.-Mexico border from their parents, also appears to offer condolences to the entire Dept. of Homeland Security.

"Yeah, it's heart-wrenching," Sec. Nielsen told "Fox & Friends" Friday morning, a week after the young child's death.

"My heart goes out to the family – all of DHS," she said. It's unclear if she meant she was speaking for all of DHS or if she was sending condolences to all of DHS.

Meanwhile, the embattled Homeland Security chief didn't stop there. She then pivoted, blaming the family who "chose" to flee dangerous Central America to seek refuge in the U.S.

"You know, this is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. The family chose to cross illegally. What happened here was they were 90 miles away from where we could process them."

"They came in such a large crowd, it took our Border Patrol folks a couple of times to get them all," she insisted.

"We gave immediate care, we'll continue to look into the situation, but again I cannot stress how dangerous this journey is when migrants choose to come here illegally."

In truth, the girl was held for 8 hours before being taken to a hospital. Some have noted that is not "immediate care."

Vox adds that "DHS hasn’t said if she was given water."

Secretary Nielsen is being chastised on social media for the death of the child and for what many see as an offensive response.

MSNBC's Chris Hayes blasted the statement released by DHS on the child's death:

Hillary Clinton just weighed in, calling this a "humanitarian crisis."

Others are calling Sec. Nielsen a criminal:

More responses:

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