(CNSNews.com) — In an interview with National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition” on Saturday, John Morton, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told host Scott Simon that U.S. immigration laws require the removal of aliens who are in the country illegally, but that those without criminal records are “not our priority.”
In the June 9 interview, Simon asked Morton about charges by some critics of his agency that illegal aliens were being rounded up for minor infractions like a broken taillight and being deported. […]
“The immigration laws of the United States provide that people can be removed simply for being here unlawfully. And obviously, our job is to enforce the law. And while we do remove people without criminal convictions, the scenario that she lays out of people who’ve been here for a very long period of time and have no criminal record and are removed from the United States is, in fact, quite rare,” Morton replied.