Timing of ‘raids’ unfortunate, Mcaleenan says

A man is taken into custody at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, Miss., on Wednesday. Mark Morgan, acting head of the Border Patrol, said the action was a “targeted law enforcement operation” and not a “raid.”

Acting customs and border protection commissioner Mark Morgan said Sunday that the mass immigration raids at Mississippi workplaces last week were not “raids,” disputing the terminology that has been widely used to describe the operation.

“I think words matter. These aren’t raids. These are targeted law enforcement operations,” Morgan said on CNN’S “State of the Union.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin Mcaleenan, meanwhile, said he regretted the timing of the raids, which were carried out just days after a mass shooting in which a gunman killed 22 people at an El Paso Walmart. The suspect told authorities that he was targeting “Mexicans,” according to police.

“The timing was unfortunate,” Mcaleenan said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

U.S. authorities have in recent days strongly defended the raids amid outrage over images of weeping children arriving home to find their parents missing. The operation has also exposed what state and local officials say is a major shortcoming in ICE procedures for dealing with children, with parents caught up in immigration-related enforcement activities while at work unable to pick their children up from school, day-care centers and elsewhere, leaving some deserted and scared.

“In this case, this was a joint criminal investigation with ICE and the Department of Justice targeting work site enforcement, meaning companies that knowingly and willfully hire illegal aliens so that, in most cases, they can pay them reduced wages, exploit them further for