Co-host Ainsley Earhardt stated that Trump’s policy is in place to “vet who’s coming across the border, in case it’s MS-13 or drugs.” 
 
 Kilmeade went on, “Somebody has to deal with this issue. It doesn’t matter who the president is. If you don’t like his policy, he’s also open to your policy, rather than just criticizing his. He’s trying to send a message to the other countries, ‘this is not the way you do it,’ because this is a country that has rules and laws. We just can’t let everybody in that wants to be here.” 
 
 On Wednesday, the president signed an executive order he claimed would end the immigration policy he initiated that separated thousands of children from their parents at the United States-Mexico border. However, the executive order also aims to increase the government’s ability to detain kids with their parents indefinitely. 
 
 MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle ripped apart Kilmeade’s remarks on air, saying that she wanted to “point something out to our colleagues over at ‘Fox & Friends.’” ||||| On Friday’s Fox & Friends, Brian Kilmeade defended President Donald Trump‘s border policies at one point by more or less saying, Hey, at least he’s not taking American kids away from their parents. 
 
 As Kilmeade spoke with his colleagues about the ongoing debate surrounding the immigration compromise bill being floated through Congress, he expressed support for Trump broadcasting a deterrent for Latin American migrants who wish to seek shelter in the United States. This tied in with a broader show of support for how Trump is enforcing the rule of law by taking border security seriously. 
 
 “Somebody has to deal with this issue,” Kilmeade said. “We just can’t let everybody in that wants to be here.” 
 
 Shortly after that, Kilmeade topped off his commentary with this statement: 
 
 “Like it or not, these aren’t our kids. 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 and who have needs as well.” 
 
 UPDATE: Kilmeade has offered a clarification for his remarks. 
 
 Watch above, via Fox News. 
 
 [Image via screengrab] 
 
 — — 
 
 >> Follow Ken Meyer (@KenMeyer91) on Twitter 
 
 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| The first daughter remained silent for months about her father's policy of separating parents and children at the border. During an interview with Fox Business on Friday, Ivanka Trump commented verbally on the family separation policy. When asked whether she'd approached Trump about it, Ivanka said she had, and added that she has "very strong opinions on that topic." 
 
 In April, the Trump administration announced a "zero-tolerance" immigration policy of prosecuting all parents who crossed the border without paperwork, part of which included taking children from their parents and detaining them separately. Ivanka didn't speak out publicly about the policy for months, until the president signed an executive order in June to replace it with one that would allow the government to keep families in detention together indefinitely. 
 
 After discussing the first daughter's support for a child tax credit, interviewer Maria Bartiromo brought up family separation. "Our first lady was very moved by it, went to the border twice," she said. "Did you also say something to him [...] before he signed that executive order?" 
 
 "Of course," Ivanka said, nodding. "I have very strong opinions on that topic." She did not elaborate on those opinions, and Bartiromo ended the interview there. 
 
 Prior to Friday, the first daughter had only commented on the policy via Twitter. After Trump signed the order, she tweeted: 
 
 Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values;the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families." 
 
 She also wrote that families should be reunited as "swiftly and safely" as possible. These tweets, and her comment to Fox Business, suggest that she was opposed to the separation policy — and she's received some criticism for not saying so openly while it was still going on. 
 
 "Where is Ivanka in all of this?" Meghan McCain, ABC host and daughter of Senator John McCain (R-AZ), said on June 19. "Because she's all for women and mothers, and she has a White House role... and I'm sort of interested that her platform has been women and mothers and she doesn't seem to have anything to say about this." 
 
 The first daughter also experienced backlash for posting photos of her children on social media during the border crisis. Journalist Brian Klaas called one of the pictures "unbelievably tone deaf." 
 
 Even though Ivanka has been reticent to address the crisis in public, Trump told lawmakers on June 19 that she approached him about it privately. "Daddy, what are we doing about this?" he said she asked him. 
 
 Representative Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) told The Daily Beast that Ivanka was eager to end family separations. "She has been apparently very affected by this and moved, and asked him to find a way to stop this practice," he said. Axios reported that she also told the president that photographs from the border crisis were a "problem." 
 
 Last week, Ivanka donated $50,000 to a megachurch in Plano, Texas that plans to help separated migrant kids. The church says that it will hold an event to raise the children's spirits and give families financial assistance. The donation brought her a new round of condemnation, though, when word spread that the church engages in anti-LGBTQ activism. 
 
 The first daughter's comments on Thursday seem destined to bring her yet another surge of criticism. "After weeks of silence on Trump's immoral family separation policy," CNN pundit Keith Boykin tweeted on Friday, "Ivanka Trump now wants to take credit for her father's policy shift."
– The controversy over separating immigrant children from their parents continues, this time thanks to words from a Fox & Friends co-host. Per Mediaite, Brian Kilmeade took to the airwaves Friday morning, staunchly defending President Trump's moves on dealing with immigrants trying to enter the US. "He's trying to send a message to the other countries: This is not the way you do it, because this is a country that has rules and laws," he said to co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Steve Doocy. But it was his remarks on the separations specifically that raised the ire of many. "Like it or not, these aren't our kids," he noted. "Show 'em compassion, but it's not like [Trump] is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas. These are people from another country." Twitter erupted in slams, while, per HuffPost, MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle addressed any insinuation that those opposed to Trump's moves care more about migrant kids than US kids: "Please … your propaganda, that anyone is putting the life of a migrant child ahead of the life of an American child, is simply nonsense. It's ignorant. It's stupid. It's wrong." Kilmeade later clarified his comments on Twitter, tweeting, "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. I have compassion for all children, especially for all the kids separated from their parents right now." He also said he was pleased kids were "on their way" to being reunited with their parents and put up a clip from his Fox News Radio show, where he reiterated, "All kids are important. All kids are special."