Marco Rubio And Trump's Border Czar Defend Deportation Of U.S. Citizen Children

Both men said the children weren't deported... they just went with their mothers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the deportation of three children who are U.S. citizens, claiming the mothers could have made their kids stay behind.

“Those children are U.S. citizens,” Rubio said on Sunday’s episode of “Meet The Press.” “They can come back into the United States if their father or someone here who wants to assume them. But ultimately, who was deported was their mothers, who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers.”

According to The Washington Post, the three children were from two different families, ages 2, 4 and 7, and deported early Friday. Their lawyers said “both families were taken into custody while attending routine check-ins this week in New Orleans as part of the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which allows individuals to remain in their communities while undergoing immigration proceedings.” They were then taken to Alexandria, Louisiana, a three-hour drive from New Orleans, and put on a flight to Honduras, all while preventing any communication with any members of their families.

When asked on “Meet The Press” about such deportations violating the due process rights of both citizens and noncitizens, Rubio skirted around the question and said, “If someone’s in this country unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported.”

Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar and the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said on Sunday’s “Face The Nation” that the children weren’t deported, but rather that the “mother chose to take the children with her.”