Trump's pick to lead ICE called children 'soon to be MS-13 gang members'

Mark Morgan, Trump’s choice to be the next head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), gave an interview this year in which he callously referred to child migrants as “soon-to-be MS-13 gang member[s].”

Trump announced on May 5 that he would nominate Morgan, who previously led the Border Patrol for several months, to run ICE — the agency tasked with arresting and deporting migrants, and with executing Trump’s cruel and racist immigration policies.

Morgan’s past rhetoric shows just how closely he is aligned with Trump’s bigoted approach.

In January, Morgan did an interview with white supremacist Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“I’ve been to the detention facilities where I’ve walked up to these individuals that are ‘so-called minors,'” Morgan said, “Seventeen or under, and I’ve looked at them and I’ve looked at their eyes, Tucker, and I’ve said that is a soon-to-be MS-13 gang member.”

Contrary to Morgan’s assertion, a person aged 17 and under is not a “so-called minor.” They are a minor child.

Morgan appears to believe he has the psychic ability to predict whether a child will join a gang. And smearing all Latino immigrants by conflating them with the brutal criminals in MS-13 comes right out of Trump’s own racist playbook.

Morgan has appeared on Fox News more than 80 times just in the last five months, according to HuffPost. Trump has consistently made hiring decisions for important posts based on what he sees on Fox, and Morgan’s nomination follows this pattern.

Trump’s immigration policy is centered around cruelty to children and families, including but not limited to separating them and putting them in cages.

So it makes perfect, twisted sense for Trump to pick a top immigration enforcement official who seems to think immigrant children aren’t even fully human.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.