Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the indefensible during an interview on this Sunday's Meet the Press.
Over the weekend, three US citizens, ages 2, 4 and 7 were deported, and the fact that they are citizens and received no due process isn't even the worst of it:
Early yesterday morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent three U.S. citizens aged 2, 4, and 7 from Louisiana, including one with Stage 4 cancer, to Honduras when they deported their mothers. The three are children of two different mothers who were arrested while checking in with the government as part of their routine process for immigration proceedings. The women and their children were not permitted to speak to family or lawyers before being flown to Honduras. The cancer patient was sent out of the country without medication or consultation with doctors although, according to Charisma Madarang and Lorena O'Neil of Rolling Stone, ICE agents were told of the child’s medical needs.
The government says the mothers opted to take their U.S. citizen children to Honduras with them. But as Emmanuel Felton and Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post noted, because ICE refused to let the women talk to their lawyers, there is only the agents’ word for how events transpired.
Rubio was asked about the deportations by host Kristen Welker, and once again proved he's just as much of a monster as the rest of the ghouls in this nightmare of an administration:
KRISTEN WELKER: Okay. Let's talk now about some new reporting that came in overnight. I want to just go through it for you and for our audience. Three U.S. citizen children have been deported with their mothers. Now, this is according to The Washington Post, the family's lawyer says, "One of them is a four-year-old with stage-four cancer, deported without medication or ability to contact doctors." The families' lawyers are also saying their clients were denied communication with family and legal representatives before being deported. And it's raising concerns about the issue of due process, that it's being violated. So, let me ask you, is everyone on U.S. soil, citizens and non-citizens, entitled to due process?
SEC. MARCO RUBIO: Yes, of course. But let me tell you, it looks – in immigration standing, the laws are very specific. If you're in this country unlawfully, you have no right to be here and you must be removed. That's what the law says. Somehow over the last 20 years we've completely lost this notion that somehow – or completely adopted this idea that, yes, we have immigration laws but once you come into our country illegally it triggers all kinds of rights that can keep you here indefinitely. That's why we were being flooded at the border. And we’ve ended that, and that's why you don’t – you see a historically low number of people not just trying to cross our border, trying to cross the border into Panama all the way down in the Darién Gap. I mean, it's been a huge help for those countries as well. On the headline: that's a misleading headline, okay? Three U.S. citizens ages four, seven, and two were not deported. Their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers. If those children are U.S. citizens, 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 mother – their mothers, who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers. But – it wasn’t like – you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed a two-year-old and threw him on an airplane. That's misleading. That's just not true.
KRISTEN WELKER: Just to be clear, because I do want to get to the overhaul at the State Department, is it the U.S. policy to deport children, even U.S. citizens, with their families, and I hear what you're saying, without due process? Just to be very clear there.
SEC. MARCO RUBIO: Well, no, no, no, no, no. Again, if someone's in this country unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported. If that person is with a two-year-old child or has a two-year-old child and says, "I want to take my child with you – with me," well, then you have two choices. You can say, "Yes, of course, you can take your child, whether they're a citizen or not because it's your child," or you can say, "Yes, you can go, but your child must stay behind." And then your headlines would read, "U.S. holding hostage two-year-old, four-year-old, seven-year-old while mother deported." So the mother, the parents, make that choice. I imagine those three U.S. citizen children have fathers here in the United States. They can stay with their father. That's up to their family to decide where the children go. Children go with their parents. Parents decide where their children go.
KRISTEN WELKER: All right.
SEC. MARCO RUBIO: The U.S. deported their mothers, who were illegally in America.
Lawyers, Guns & Money has a statement from their lawyer which contradicts Rubio's nonsense:
This is America. ICE deported my client and her 2 US citizen children this morning with no notice, no opportunity for counsel, no medicine or advice from the treating physicians for the 4 year old with stage 4 cancer. They hid my clients from me and then deported them so quickly as to deprive the Courts of any review. The horror truly outstrips our ability to process and respond to it. But I’ve been lucky to spend the last 48 hours arm in arm with some of the smartest, most powerful, and most committed attorneys and advocates I’ve had the privilege of meeting (though I wish it were under better circumstances). Feel free to share widely. I’ve been given permission from this devastated family to comment publicly. If you have any resources to get the word out and want comment, lemme know.
