Updated

Charles Krauthammer said Monday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that the U.S. cannot treat the thousands of illegal immigrants flooding across the border as refugees because that would only be “importing the problem” from their home countries.

Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and a Fox News contributor, said he would spend a “lot of money” to use American resources to help the countries on their own soil. He suggested sending American personnel and funds to help establish centers in Central and South American countries to provide a refuge from the violence plaguing the citizens.

However, he said treating the illegal immigrants as refugees and allowing them to stay in the U.S. is not the solution.

“We cannot do that as a country, open our borders up, because of miserable conditions in certain countries,” he said. “Otherwise the Congo would empty and end up here."

He said if the U.S. were to give illegal immigrants treat the immigrants as refugees, the government may as well send buses to collect the immigrants because the border would be basically open.

“Importing the problem into the US is, to me, unacceptable,” he said, “because it means we don’t have a border.”