Acting CBP chief downplays video of sobbing girl whose dad was detained in raid: 'Her father committed a crime'
Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan wasn't moved by video of a weeping 11-year-old girl, begging for the release of her parents after they were detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Mississippi last week.
"I understand that the girl is upset and I get that," Morgan told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday. "But her father committed a crime." On Wednesday, ICE raided seven agricultural plants and arrested 680 people. During an interview with a local news station, the girl cried and pleaded with the government to let her parents go. "My dad didn't do nothing," she said. "He's not a criminal."
Morgan, who told Tapper the girl has since been reunited with her mother, said the interview was "done on purpose to show a picture like that," and insisted that the news should instead talk to people whose identities have been stolen by undocumented immigrants. "It is not just a victimless crime that's going on here," he said.
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Tapper also asked Morgan why only employees were rounded up on Wednesday and not the people who hired them, and he responded that investigators are still collecting information under a criminal search warrant. Watch the interview below. Catherine Garcia
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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