South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the dead migrants found floating in the Rio Grande on Monday could have avoided tragedy if they had just stayed home.
Graham appeared on Fox News on Wednesday with host Martha MacCallum to speak about a photo that has charged the immigration debate this week. The photo depicts a father and his 23-month-old daughter lying face down after they drowned in the Rio Grande.
“This is not the president’s fault,” Graham said, defending President Trump from accusations that his immigration policies led to the tragedy.
“I hate it very much that this father and daughter died, but they should stay in their country. We should help them in their country. This journey they are taking is very dangerous,” Graham said.
His comments came as a $4.6 billion emergency funding bill to alleviate a massive surge of illegal immigration cleared Congress.
Graham argued the U.S. immigration system is incentivizing migrants to bring young children who cannot fend for themselves on a dangerous journey.
“Here’s our law, if you get one foot in the United States, you claim asylum, you are entitled to a hearing. The hearing is like three years away. People don’t show up,” Graham said. “If you bring a small child, we can only hold the child for 20 days. We don’t want to separate families, so we let the entire family unit go.”
“Word is out on the street in Central America that if you bring a small child to the United States and ask for asylum, you are never going to be sent back. You stay in America forever. Until we change that law, nothing changes,” Graham said.
