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Ron Colburn, president of the Border Patrol Foundation and former national deputy chief of the CBP, appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning and claimed that pepper spray is so harmless you could "put it on your nachos" and eat it. (Screenshot: Fox News)

Shooting Pepper Spray at Children Okay, Former CBP Deputy Chief Tells Fox News, Because 'You Could Actually Put It on Your Nachos and Eat It'

"The layers of racism encapsulated in this short clip is extraordinary."

Common Dreams staff

Amid widespread outrage and condemnation over the tear gassing of mothers, their children, and other asylum seekers and migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, Ronald Colburn, president of the Border Patrol Foundation and former national deputy chief of the CBP, appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning and claimed the gas—which reports said led to children "screaming and coughing in the mayhem" that resulted from it—was really just a "natural" product and "you actually could put it on your nachos and eat it."

As one observer put it, the stupidity of Colburn's statement has to be seen to be believed:

The outrageous claim and inhumanity of its implications did not go over well:

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