“A Nov. 18 story headlined ‘U.S. has world’s highest rate of children in detention — U.N. study’ is withdrawn,” Reuters reports. “The United Nations issued a statement on Nov. 19 saying the number was not current but was for the year 2015.” Agence France-Presse and National Public Radio likewise scrubbed stories about this. And the Associated Press explained in its retraction, “The story quoted an independent expert working with the U.N. human rights office saying that over 100,000 children are currently being held. But that figure refers to the total number of U.S. child detentions for the year 2015.”

Other than that, the story was accurate!

These stories initially made it past the vaunted fact-checkers solely because they were meant to vilify the Trump administration over immigration detentions. They fit the leftist narrative of Trump’s “xenophobic and racist” immigration policies. Of course, that was untenable because the data was collected during the Obama administration.

In fact, there are roughly 6,500 minors detained in the U.S. at the moment, and over the past year, the Trump administration has detained less than 70,000 kids at any point or duration. Again, 100,000 was the cumulative total for all of 2015. Hope ‘n’ Change and all that.

Moreover, says the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams, “That ‘100,000’ figure should have never made it past the editing process, let alone launch a handful of headlines declaring the U.S. the leader in detained children. That figure requires not just shoddy math but also a total suspension of disbelief regarding what goes on in the darker, more tyrannical corners of the world. To say the U.S. is a world leader in detained minors would mean that America is being measured against all countries, including China, Russia, and North Korea. If you believe U.N. investigators have reliable figures from any of those countries, then, oh boy, have I got a bridge to sell you.” China is currently detaining as many as two million Uyghurs. Think maybe some of them are children?

We’ve seen this movie before. Back in the summer 2018, when outrage over the Trump administration’s detention polices was at its peak, the media hyped pictures of kids in cages that were actually taken during Obama’s regime, all to make Trump look bad. Fake news often happens because of Trump Derangement Syndrome.