Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has no problem "dragging undocumented immigrants onto buses" in front of their crying children. "It can be done," she told Bill O'Reilly on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor."
Bachmann doesn't appear concerned that families are being torn apart with devastating consequences to U.S.-citizen children.
Amid a record number of detentions and deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more than 5,000 children are in foster care around the country, according to a study, "Shattered Families," by the Applied Research Center.
O'Reilly told the GOP presidential hopeful: "Look, if you pick up some guy in a car, and he's an illegal alien -- he's got three kids at home -- what are you gonna do, throw him and his kids on a bus the next day? Is that what you're gonna do? Can you imagine that?"
Bachmann, reinforcing her hard-line stance on the issue, replied: "Well, Bill, what we have to do is end the practice of anchor babies in the United States" because that's when "illegal aliens come in."
O'Reilly said, "I'm not justifying it. I'm just saying on a human basis, I don't think that -- theory is one thing. Dragging people out, putting them on a bus with their children's crying can be quite something else."
Bachmann said matter-of-factly: "It can be done. That's the thing, it can be done."
"It can be done, but at what cost?" O'Reilly asked.
Between Bachmann and GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, it's a tough call as to who has a harsher position against immigration.
Santorum, speaking at a campaign stop in Spencer, Iowa, on Wednesday, said families that include undocumented immigrants "should be broken up when the law is broken."
Newt Gingrich, another Republican candidate, in November said that families should not be broken up. "I don't see how the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century."
"I understand Congressman Gingrich saying, 'Well, you know, people have been here and they've been good citizens and paying taxes.' Yeah, under somebody else's Social Security number because you stole it," Santorum said.
Still, Gingrich has defended his controversial plan to have "schoolchildren from poor neighborhoods serve as janitors."
Many Latinos and immigration advocates support a comprehensive immigration reform plan that is more compassionate.
According to a poll by the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll, "A substantial majority of Americans say they would prefer to allow some or all illegal immigrants to remain in the United States." The poll said 2 percent of Republicans favor allowing those who have been here for many years and have broken no other laws to stay legally.