Kasich on audio of separated children: Seems ‘we have lost our sense of humanity’

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) on Tuesday tore into the Trump administration’s practice of separating families who cross the border illegally, calling it “misguided” and “wrong.”

Kasich told CNN that his frustration with the issue came to a head when he heard audio from inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. The audio, obtained and published by ProPublica, depicts children crying out for family members.

“I couldn’t listen to it. I mean I listened for a short period of time and it’s, you know, it’s almost enough to make you cry for these children,” Kasich said.

{mosads}

He was particularly incensed by a portion of the audio clip where a border patrol agent can be heard joking that the cries of the children resemble an orchestra.

“You know, I don’t like to ever run around or tell somebody they ought to be fired or whatever,” Kasich said. “If they were working for me, they would definitely be out for a while and maybe gone forever from that job. This is not something to joke about.”

“It seems as though we have lost our sense of humanity,” he continued. “These are people, this is flesh and blood, these are children.”

Kasich, who is leaving the governor’s mansion when his term expires in January, is considered a potential challenger to President Trump in 2020.

His comments come amid a growing bipartisan uproar over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy treatment of immigrants illegally entering the country via the U.S-Mexico border.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration’s policy earlier this year, saying the Department of Justice would criminally prosecute all adults attempting to illegally cross the southern border into the U.S. As a result, families who crossed together would, in some cases, be separated, he said at the time.

Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for the separation policy, despite his administration issuing the directive that led to the practice. On Monday, he doubled down, saying the U.S. “will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility.”

Administration officials have said only Congress can fix the issue by passing immigration reform.

Some members of Congress have crafted legislation that would end the practice of separating families at the border.