"They can come back": Rubio defends deportations of children who are US citizens

Secretary of State Marco Rubio thinks the press needs to be a little more fair when covering President Donald Trump's program of deportations without due process.

Confronted on Sunday with a news story about American citizens being deported along with their undocumented immigrant parents, Rubio called the story "misleading," disputing the framing and not the facts.

"If you're in this country unlawfully, you have no right to be here," Rubio said during a visit to "Meet the Press." "Three U.S. citizens were not deported...their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children just went with their mothers."

Rubio callously pointed out that the deported citizens "can come back" to the U.S.

On Saturday, The Washington Post shared that ICE agents detained and then deported three children who were U.S. citizens after their parents appeared for a routine check-in with immigration authorities. One deportee was a 4-year-old battling stage 4 cancer. Attorneys for the family say that they were deported without medication and deprived of the ability to contact their doctors.

"I don’t know how much more of a blatant or clear constitutional violation there can be than deporting U.S. citizens without due process," ACLU of Louisiana Director Alanah Odoms told the Post. "Especially with some of those citizens being the most vulnerable of all vulnerable, children, and not just any children, children with medical conditions that are dire."

Host Kristen Welker asked Rubio if it was "U.S. policy to deport U.S. citizens...without due process."

"Children go with their parents," Rubio said, waving away the question of citizens' rights.