Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), who along with other lawmakers met with leaders of Central America over the weekend, said that those officials “want their children back.”
“This is not an immigration problem, this is a crisis,” Granger said on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday after she concluded the trip. “What we should be dealing with is this crisis and not blaming either Congress or these countries.”
Granger, who is chair the House group working to address the immigration crisis, met with President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez and President of Guatemala Otto Pérez Molina.
“We found out that the president and the first ladies of Guatemala and Honduras want their children back and they’re willing to cooperate with us to send their children back as quickly as possible,” Granger said.
Granger pointed out that Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with murders every 20 minutes within its borders, which may explain the high concentration of children heading north.
When asked by “Fox and Friends” hosts if she spoke with leaders about whether they have spoke to President Barack Obama, Granger admitted that she hadn’t but that she did suggest steps the president could take in the future.
“I did ask them how helpful it would be if the president of the United States spoke out clearly and strongly and said ‘Don’t send your children to the United States illegally because we will send them back, they will not complete their journey,’ they said could be very helpful but they did not indicate that was happening,” Granger said.
She continued, “We need to send [the children] back, help these countries keep them at home and protect our border.”
Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) echoed Granger on Fox News later Tuesday.
“We need to send them back, care for them while they’re here and adjudicate them as quickly as possible,” he said.
The administration, Coats added, had been too slow to act.
“They should’ve seen this coming months ago, if not years ago,” he said.