Fox’s Brian Kilmeade On Immigration: Somebody Showed Up With AIDS, Died Yesterday

Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade appeared to blame Congress for the death of a migrant in US custody Wednesday morning. Kilmeade was harshly criticizing Congress for its perceived inaction on the flow of migrants and made reference to a tragic story to bolster his argument.

“How remarkably un-self-aware [sic] Congress is,” Kilmeade said. “They caused this mess. They have not fixed the three or four things necessary to change laws, to shut it off and they are sitting there against the President on tariffs? When he’s using everything possible? Put the wall aside. Everything possible to stem the horrific crisis going on in our border. Somebody died yesterday, showed up with AIDS, died there.”

Kilmeade was talking about a transgender woman named Johana Medina León, who was HIV positive and died in ICE custody on Saturday. Kilmeade failed to mention that León had reportedly been denied medication during her weeks in custody.

The Daily Beast noted that León had not entered the country illegally as she was an asylum seeker. León was 25-years-old and a nurse. She is not the first transgender person to die in ICE custody, nor did she die ‘yesterday’, as Kilmeade claimed.

Kilmeade’s decision to mention León’s case, without explaining the details, seems deliberately misleading. Fox & Friends hosts reflexively defend and praise ICE and frequently host former members of ICE as well as others who strongly defend its actions. In this case, ICE is accused of criminal negligence leading to León’s death.

The segment quickly moved on from Kilmeade’s remarks, with no further explanation offered.

Watch the video above, via Fox News.