Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said the situation at the US-Mexico border is 'almost like' 9/11

Twitter

"Fox and Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday compared the situation at the border to 9/11.

• "Fox and Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday compared the current situation at the border to the 9/11 terror attacks. 
• "There are times when Democrats and Republicans come together. When the market fell apart in 2008 and after 9/11, this is almost like that at the border," Kilmeade said.
• This came a day after President Donald Trump introduced a new immigration proposal calling for the implementation of a merit-based system that would prioritize granting entry to young, "highly skilled" people.
• Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

"Fox and Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on Friday morning said the current situation at the US-Mexico border is "almost like" the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, and the market crash of 2008 that fostered the Great Recession. 

"There are times when Democrats and Republicans come together. When the market fell apart in 2008 and after 9/11, this is almost like that at the border," Kilmeade said in reference to surging numbers of migrants at the southern border. 

"We have never seen these numbers before," Kilmeade went on to say. "And the men and women who have to round up these illegals who want to become part of our country are saying please help us. They could actually get something done now, please go behind closed doors and do it."

Kilmeade's comparison of the border situation to 9/11 came a day after President Donald Trump introduced a new immigration proposal calling for the implementation of a merit-based system that would prioritize granting entry to young, "highly skilled" people as opposed to those with family ties in the US. 

"Our plan achieves two critical goals," Trump said on Thursday. "First, it stops illegal immigration and fully secures the border.  And, second, it establishes a new legal immigration system that protects American wages, promotes American values, and attracts the best and brightest from all around the world."

Read more: Trump's new immigration bill is 'dead on arrival' - but its real value could be shoring up his immigration strategy for 2020

"My plan expedites relief for legitimate asylum seekers by screening out the meritless claims," Trump said. "If you have a proper claim, you will quickly be admitted; if you don't, you will promptly be returned home."

Between the 2012 and 2017 fiscal years, over 75% of asylum cases that came before the immigration court from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala - where many of the migrants currently trying to enter the US are from - were denied. 

But congressisonal Democrats have already signaled they will not support the president's proposal. 

"The White House has repackaged the worst of its past failed immigration plans: greenlighting the Administration's barbaric family detention policies, reviving the President's ineffective and wasteful wall, completely abandoning our patriotic and determined Dreamers and gutting our asylum and refugee protections," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. "To say that this plan's application criteria are 'merit-based' is the height of condescension."

Pelosi said Trump's plan is "dead on arrival."

Trump has prioritized addressing immigration since his presidential campaign. But he's struggled to deliver on his campaign pledges and has even faced opposition from Republicans in Congress on his approach to the issue, perhaps most notably after he declared a national emergency to obtain funding for a border wall.