JD Vance's Cold-Blooded Response to 7-Year-Old Girl in ICE Detention
Vice President JD Vance faced backlash after responding to a letter from a 7-year-old girl, Valentina Paz, allegedly trapped in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. The girl expressed her longing for school, friends, and family, stating, “I don’t feel good in this place.”
In an interview with Univision, Vance was confronted with the emotional weight of the letter. The interviewer pressed him to consider that any of his three children—Ewan, 9, Vivek, 6, and Mirabel, 4—could be in the same situation. Vance is expecting a fourth child in July.
When asked what he would say to Paz, Vance offered a vague response, calling the letter “very heartbreaking” but quickly pivoted to discussing immigration enforcement policies alongside President Donald Trump.
Critics on social media slammed Vance’s response as cold and evasive. One user remarked that his reply revealed a shocking lack of empathy for the child. The backlash intensified as users questioned his Christian faith, given his conversion to Catholicism in 2019 and his recent book on religion.
Comments ranged from outright condemnation to disbelief, with one user stating, “Tell me you’re not a real Christian without telling me…f--- you JD. You’re a heartless, self-serving a--hole.”
Vance defended the Trump administration's immigration policies, which prioritize border security and tougher enforcement. He claimed that previous administrations allowed “tens of thousands—hundreds of thousands” of vulnerable girls like Valentina into the country, some of whom faced dire circumstances.
He cited the administration's claim of saving “60,000 migrant children from sex trafficking and child labor,” while also acknowledging the grim reality of over 6,200 children detained by ICE during Trump’s second term.
The Marshall Project reported that the number of detained children has increased under Trump compared to previous administrations. Under former President Joe Biden, the average daily number of detained children dropped significantly after family detention was ended in 2021.
Vance noted that the Trump administration reinstated family detention practices, where children are held alongside their parents. He acknowledged the complexities of immigration enforcement, stating that deporting individuals often leads to “heartbreaking circumstances” for innocent children.
He suggested that sometimes the “right answer” is to send children back with their deported parents to their country of origin, emphasizing a case-by-case approach to these sensitive issues.
