Bachmann: Throw Undocumented Parents on Buses, Leave Kids Crying

Michele Bachmann, who says she'll deport every single undocumented immigrant in the U.S., told Bill O'Reilly there's no problem if their children stay behind crying.

By Jorge Rivas Dec 09, 2011

Leave it to GOP presidential hopeful and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmamn to make Bill O’Reilly look like a sensitive, thoughtful and conscious individual. On Monday night’s "O’Reilly Factor" Bachmann was discussing undocumented immigrants and what to do with them when they’re stopped by the police for simple infractions, like if they get "caught in a car" with a broken tail light for example.

O’Reilly suggested a humane response was in order and not deporting every single undocumented immigrant in the U.S., like Bachmann says she plans to do. "I’m just saying on a human basis, I don’t think that — theory is one thing. Dragging people out, putting them on a bus with their children’s crying can be quite something else," O’Reillly said.

"It can be done," Bachmann said. "That’s the thing, it can be done." 

"It can be done, but at what cost?", O’Reilly asked. 

The reality is it’s already happening because one in four of people detained for deportation have kids and sometimes they are separated forever. Last month a yearlong investigation by Colorlines.com’s publisher, the Applied Research Center, found more than 5,000 children stuck in foster care because their parents were detained by ICE.

Listen to one mother’s story below that was taken away by police in front of her crying children. Transcript from the show also available below.

(hat tip to Media Matters)

Transcript from "The O’Reilly Factor:"

O’REILLY: Look, if you pick up some guy in a car, and he’s an illegal alien — he’s got three kids at home — what are you gonna do, throw him and his kids on a bus the next day? Is that what you’re gonna do? Can you imagine that?

BACHMANN: Well Bill, what we have to do is end the practice of anchor babies in the United States. That’s when illegal aliens come in —

O’REILLY: You’ve got to pass a law for that.

BACHMANN: We’ve got to pass a law that will end that practice.

O’REILLY: All of them that are here now are going to be an enormous problem to deal with. Because there are a lot of people here who’ve been here for a lot of years. And if you’re gonna start dragging them out of here, it’s gonna be very, very difficult to do that.

BACHMANN: But remember they broke the law to get in here, there is a consequence —

O’REILLY: I’m not justifying it. I’m just saying on a human basis, I don’t think that — theory is one thing. Dragging people out, putting them on a bus with their children’s crying can be quite something else.

BACHMANN: It can be done. That’s the thing, it can be done.

O’REILLY: It can be done, but at what cost?