Border official: Timing of immigration raids 'unfortunate'

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 August 3.

 

But McAleenan tells NBC the operation had been planned for more than a year.