Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Now with Alex Wagner,” the former Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) said as a governor from a border state, he had to deal with “all this right-wing fear mongering” about “everything from diseases to terrorism” on illegal immigration.

Richardson accused “the Tea Party and some of the strongest elements out there that don’t want to see comprehensive immigration reform, period” of being “nativists” that want to keep “America pure.”

He went on to blame Republicans for the ten of thousands of children suffering in overcrowded holding facilities and said, “They exploited a situation that today is exacerbated by the 50,000 children in the United States and no one’s doing anything.”

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