Fox & Friends host dismisses plight of immigrant children: 'Like it or not, these aren't our kids'

"Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday tried to downplay the plight of young immigrant children who were separated from their parents as a result of President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy.

As Media Matters reports, Kilmeade said that we shouldn't be too upset about the president forcibly ripping immigrant children away from their parents because they aren't American children from Texas or Idaho.

"These are not -- like it or not, these aren't our kids," Kilmeade said. "Show them compassion, but it's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country and now people are saying that they're more important than people in our country who are paying taxes."

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt, meanwhile, said that president was right to separate families because the children could be tied to gangs such as MS-13.

"He just wants to make sure we vet who's coming across the border, in case it's MS-13 or drugs," she said.

After getting criticism for his remarks, Kilmeade subsequently took to Twitter to issue a clarification.

"On FOX & Friends earlier, Of course-I didn’t mean to make it seem like children coming into the U.S. illegally are less important because they live in another country," he wrote. "I have compassion for all children, especially for all the kids separated from their parents right now."

Watch the video below.