Nancy Pelosi, House Minority leader, said that tens and thousands of illegal children travelling across America’s borders should be considered an  opportunity and not seen as a crisis because we are all God’s children.

“This crisis that some call a crisis, we have to view as an opportunity… If you believe as we do that every child, every person has a spark of divinity in them, and is therefore worthy of respect — what we saw in those [holding] rooms was a dazzling, sparkling array of God’s children, worthy of respect,” said Pelosi.

Pelosi made the remarks after Craig Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, was appointed the point person to facilitate America’s response and while President Barack Obama planned to ask Congress for over $2 billion as aid for border surge. Pelosi, who is a California Democrat, accepted that the sudden rush of unaccompanied youth from across the border did have characteristics of a crisis but at the same time, the situation is merely an opportunity to show the world what Americans are like and how far they can go to show respect for people’s worth and dignity.

According to official estimates, approximately 60,000 to 90,000 children are expected to enter the United States illegally by the end of 2014. Recent reports have also suggested that a lot of these children are infected with communicable diseases like swine flu and scabies.