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.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayor
In The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all time
The Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
'More must be done'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Sniper kills 2 Idaho firefighters in ambush
Speed Read A man started a wildfire, then fired a rifle at first responders when they arrived
-
Weinstein convicted of sex crime in retrial
Speed Read The New York jury delivered a mixed and partial verdict at the disgraced Hollywood producer's retrial
-
'King of the Hill' actor shot dead outside home
speed read Jonathan Joss was fatally shot by a neighbor who was 'yelling violent homophobic slurs,' says his husband
-
DOJ, Boulder police outline attacker's confession
speed read Mohamed Sabry Soliman planned the attack for a year and 'wanted them all to die'
-
Assailant burns Jewish pedestrians in Boulder
speed read Eight people from the Jewish group were hospitalized after a man threw Molotov cocktails in a 'targeted act of violence'
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC parade
speed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
-
2 Israel Embassy staff shot dead at DC Jewish museum
speed read The suspected gunman chanted 'free, free Palestine'
-
Bombing of fertility clinic blamed on 'antinatalist'
speed read A car bombing injured four people and damaged a fertility clinic and nearby buildings in Palm Springs, California