'It's tough love': Shouting match erupts on Fox News after host says cages for children look 'quite compassionate'

Fox News host Pete Hegseth on Tuesday insisted that photographs of immigrant children being held in detention centers "look quite compassionate" -- even though many of them appear to be held in what have been described as "cages."

During a discussion about President Donald Trump's "no tolerance" immigration policy, Outnumbered co-host Cathy Areu argued that there is no crisis of immigrants flooding across the border.

"The photos are horrifying," co-host Melissa Francis said. "And everyone on all sides is very upset. It's obviously very charged."

"I mean, these are the laws that are on the books," she added, ignoring the fact that Trump could change the policy with a telephone call. "Go back, get your pencil out and don't go home and don't go to bed until you've written [some new laws]."

Co-host Trish Regan furthered the myth that Democrats are at fault for the Trump policy of separating families.

"They would rather play this out on a very emotional level because you're appealing -- in the Democrats' mind -- to people's hearts," Regan stated. "Nobody wants to see children separated from their parents but, at the same time, it plays to any hatred they can gin up for Donald Trump."

"The economy is gangbusters!" Hegseth interrupted. "So they're sending the nightly newscasts down to the border to report from there like this is suddenly now an issue because it's happening under Donald Trump."

"Melissa, you said you find all the images horrifying," Hegseth continued, turning to Francis. "I actually think -- many of them -- look quite compassionate. Our government is trying to say, 'These are kids, these are young kids. We're going to make sure they're fed well.'"

"They're temporarily going to be there and reunited with their parents," he insisted. "These are not concentration camps, which is what people have said. You can defend the defensible. And in this case, this is defensible."

Francis fired back: "Pete, there is no moment in time when somebody would take my child away from me that I wouldn't be hysterical."

But Regan praised Trump's policy for allegedly having a deterrent effect, which she called "tough love."

"If they know they are being separated from their child for an indefinite amount of time, maybe they rethink that," she remarked. "Because, as you said, who would do that? Who would ever be willing to do that so maybe it is a kind of tough love environment with the U.S. government saying, 'You know what? You do something illegally and you're not going to be rewarded for it.'"

Watch the video below from Fox News.