Former acting commissioner of the US Customs & Border Patrol Agency Jason Ahern spoke with Chuck Todd on MSNBC this morning about children at the border, and called the issue an “international humanity crisis.”
Ahern emphasized the plight of the children and said that they are coming to the US to flee violence — a large number are from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, which have some of the highest violent death rates in the world. Many are trying to reunite with family members in the US, but others are going to Mexico or Belize — basically any safer nation.
As Ahern said: “They’re risking their lives, in some cases they’re having their lives taken, they’re being beaten, they’re being raped, there is a high level of desperation.”
Chuck Todd noted the great sympathy for these children, saying, “There’s no way an America that goes, ‘give us your tired, your poor’ turns away kids like this.”
Watch the interview below:
