Rev. Graham to Newsmax: US Immigration System Heartbreaking

Samaritan’s Purse, a nonprofit charity headed by the Rev. Franklin Graham, leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, has been working in Necoclí, Colombia, which is a staging area for migrants as they prepare to make the perilous journey north over the Darien Gap into Panama and on their way to the United States.

Samaritan’s Purse, which has been in Colombia since 2018, partners with local churches to help feed, educate, and minister to migrants seeking a better life in the U.S.

Graham told Newsmax on Wednesday he is heartbroken by the state of the U.S. immigration system and how it is affecting those migrants who have been traveling through Colombia.

“I wish our system worked,” Graham told “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.” “It was working under the previous administration. At least we had something that worked. But the whole thing has just disintegrated right now, and it’s just absolute chaos and a lot of people are going to be hurt.”

Graham said the human trafficking the charity has encountered is “incredible,” adding Samaritan’s Purse is trying to help “these very poor people who are just trying to have a better way of life.”

“Most of them come from Venezuela, but I think there are people representing 87 different countries that we have tried to help down there,” he said. “Not many people see this part of the world and the suffering that takes place there.”

Graham said seeing the suffering of the migrants who have such hopes and dreams of coming to the U.S. and finding a new way of life is what frustrates him the most.

“But we are a nation of laws,” he said. “We have an immigration system. Unfortunately, those that are queuing up and try to do it the right way are waiting years and years and years. These [migrants] might get in [the] next month or two and be on their way. I don’t know. These are people that are being taken advantage of. These are people that are being robbed by the system.

“… This is just a little part of the world where there’s a lot of human suffering taking place, and we’re trying to help those that are there. A lot of them are women and children. When you see unaccompanied minors risking their life to go to a very dangerous part of the world to try to get into the United States, it just breaks your heart.”

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