House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi argued that the tens of thousands of illegal children pouring across the border into America should be regarded as an “opportunity,” not a “crisis,” because they’re all God’s children.
“This crisis that some call a crisis, we have to view as an opportunity,” Mrs. Pelosi said, Fox News reported. “If you believe as we do that every child, every person has a spark of divinity in them, and is therefore worthy of respect — what we saw in those [holding] rooms was a dazzling, sparkling array of God’s children, worthy of respect.”
She made the comments over the weekend, at a time when Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate was assigned as the point person to coordinate the U.S. response — and as President Obama announced plans to ask Congress for more than $2 billion to help with the border surge, Fox News reported.
The California Democrat did admit that the pour of unaccompanied youth across the border “does have crisis qualities,” she said, Fox News reported. But at the same time, the situation is simply an “opportunity to show who we are as Americans, that we do respect people for their dignity and worth.”
An estimated 60,000 to 90,000 illegal children are expected to illegally enter the United States before the end of this year. Reports have surfaced in recent days that some of these children are carrying communicable diseases, including scabies and swine flu.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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