President Donald Trump expressed some sympathy for migrants in the caravan traveling from Honduras to the Southern border but noted that it was unfair to legal immigrants waiting in line.
“We cannot allow our country to be violated like this,” he said. “And it’s really unfair to the millions of people that are waiting in line to come legally into our country.”
The president commented on the caravan during a signing ceremony with members of Congress at the White House for a water infrastructure bill.
Trump said he hoped that the scenes of up to 10,000 migrants storming the borders of Mexico would motivate Congress to close the loopholes in the country’s immigration laws.
“I really think that it probably spells out to us and Congress, something has to be done, you can’t have this happen,” he said.
Trump said it was unfair for the caravan to “just come running across the border,” when legal immigrants were following the rules.
He admitted that he watched interviews of the migrants within the caravan and believed that there was “a lot of talent” in the group.
Trump said the United States would need more workers as the economy continued to grow, citing historic unemployment numbers.
“We need great people coming in, I want great people to come in, I want them to come through the merit system,” he said.
The president admitted that he had no conclusive evidence to prove that there were people of Middle Eastern descent in the migrant caravan, but clarified that he based the claim on border apprehension numbers throughout the year.
Vice President Mike Pence noted that the Honduran president told him that the caravan was organized by leftist groups in Honduras who were partially funded by Venezuela.
Trump grinned and glanced back at Democrat Sen. Tom Carper.
“And the Democrats maybe?” he asked, as Republican Senators in the room laughed.
“Here, let me give you this pen back,” Carper said, lightly punching the president in the shoulder.
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