Border official: Timing of immigration raids 'unfortunate'

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Border official: Timing of immigration raids 'unfortunate'

Associated Press | Sunday, August 11, 2019 12:43 p.m.

Friends, coworkers and family watch as U.S. immigration officials raid several Mississippi food processing plants, including this Koch Foods Inc., plant in Morton, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019. The early morning raids were part of a large-scale operation targeting owners as well as undocumented employees.

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials are defending last week’s mass immigration raids in Mississippi, including emotional footage of a girl pleading with authorities to let her father go.

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan acknowledged that video of the 11-year-old sobbing was “emotional” but says the girl was quickly reunited with her mother.

He said Sunday on CNN: “I understand that the girl is upset. And I get that. But her father committed a crime.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan acknowledged the timing of the raids was “unfortunate,” coming hours before President Donald Trump visited El Paso, Texas, where a man who told authorities he was targeting Mexicans killed 22 people on Aug. 3. But McAleenan tells NBC the operation had been planned for more than a year.

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