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President Trump blamed Democrats on Saturday for the deaths of two migrant children in detention at the southwest border this month, wielding the episodes as justification to fund a border wall. The comments came in twin posts on Twitter, where the president spent much of the day denouncing Democrats as the partial government shutdown approached its eighth day over his demand for funding for the wall. (Haberman, 12/29)

Trump, whose administration has faced widespread criticism over the deaths, pointed on Twitter at Democrats "and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally." He also said that both children "were very sick before they were given over to Border Patrol." (Merchant, Miller and Long, 12/29)

President Donald Trump twisted circumstances behind the deaths of two migrant Guatemalan children to insulate his administration from any blame, contending without justification that they were in dire health before they reached the border. The children cleared initial U.S. health screenings and one of them was in the U.S. for five days before suddenly showing signs of illness. (Woodward, 12/31)

Top House Democrats, preparing to take control of key committees early next year, have called for the preservation of all evidence related to the two child deaths in Customs and Border Protection custody. An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died Monday at a New Mexico hospital after suffering coughing, vomiting and fever, authorities said. It was the second such death this month. (12/28)

Homeland Security officials said Wednesday the agency has stepped up health checks for migrant children and tapped Coast Guard medical personnel to help improve care for sick migrants after an 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died in Border Patrol custody on Christmas Eve. Since the boy’s death, which occurred nine hours after he initially was released from a New Mexico hospital, almost all children in Border Patrol custody have received a secondary medical screening, officials said. (Frosch, 12/26)

Nielsen also said she asked the Coast Guard Medical Corps to provide an assessment of Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) medical programs and make appropriate recommendations for improvements. The announcement comes as congressional Democrats are promising an investigation into the death of an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala, the second such death of a child in CBP custody in a little over two weeks. (Weixel, 12/26)

Arizona authorities said Monday they sent prosecutors the results of an investigation into a now-shuttered shelter for immigrant children where videos showed staffers dragging and shoving kids. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office investigated incidents that took place on three days in September. Prosecutors will now decide whether to file charges. (Galvan, 12/31)

The Trump administration said Wednesday it will keep open through early 2019 a tent city in Texas that now holds more than 2,000 migrant teenagers, and also will increase the number of beds at another temporary detention center for children in Florida. The Tornillo facility opened in June in an isolated corner of the Texas desert with capacity for up to 360 children. It eventually grew into a highly guarded detention camp where, on Christmas, some 2,300 largely Central American boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17 slept in more than 150 canvas tents. (Burke and Snow, 12/26)