Fox’s George Will took a surprising stance on behalf of the child immigrants fleeing Central America who have surged at our border. “We ought to say to these children, ‘Welcome to America, you’re going to go to school, and get a job, and become American.’” His Fox News Sunday colleagues seemed taken aback, to say the least.

As host Chris Wallace explains in the clip below, he wanted Will to comment about the 57,000 unaccompanied children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, i.e. not Mexico. Also “tens of thousands” who have come with parents.

From the Fox News transcript (edited for accuracy):

GEORGE WILL, CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST:  My view is that we ought to say to these children, welcome to America. You’re going to go to school and get a job and become Americans.

We have 3,141 counties in this country. That’d be 20 per county. The idea that we can’t assimilate these 8-year-old criminals with their teddy bears is preposterous.

Long term, Chris –

WALLACE: You’ve got to know—I mean, I can just sort of feel them clicking off that we’re going to get tons of e-mail of people saying this guy doesn’t understand the border. Why should we be dealing with Central America’s problem? We can’t import the problem. They ‘ve got to deal with it there, and our border has to mean something.

WILL: We can handle this problem is what I’m saying. We’ve handled what Emma Lazarus famously called “the wretched refuge of your teeming shores a long time ago and lot more people than this.

Watch Will’s surprising take below, via Media Matters.

3/21/19 update: The previous video, from another website, is no longer available.