In a tense and revealing exchange on NBC’s Meet the Press, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a sharp rebuttal to media narratives suggesting that the Trump administration had "deported" American citizen children.
The controversy arose from headlines that implied U.S. immigration officials had forcibly removed three young citizens from their country—a characterization Rubio was quick to dismantle.
Speaking directly to anchor Kristen Welker, Rubio called out the narrative as "misleading," carefully walking through the facts. The three children in question—aged just two, four, and seven—had not been deported.
Their mothers, who were undocumented immigrants, were the ones subject to deportation proceedings. When the mothers were removed from the United States, they chose to bring their children with them—an act of parental decision, not a government mandate.
.@SecRubio nukes @kwelkernbc on the latest misleading Fake News hoax: "Three U.S. citizens ages 4, 7, and 2 were not deported — their mothers, who were illegally in this country, were deported. The children went with their mothers! ... The parents make that choice." pic.twitter.com/IJt1Lz1xWN
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 27, 2025
“If those children are U.S. citizens, they can come back into the United States if their father or someone here wants to assume them," Rubio explained. "But ultimately, who was deported were their mothers, who were here illegally. The children just went with their mothers."
Rubio’s frustration deepened as he dismantled the emotional narrative often associated with such stories. "It wasn’t like — you guys make it sound like ICE agents kicked down the door and grabbed the two-year-old and threw him on an airplane. That’s misleading! That’s just not true!" he emphasized, pushing back against what he described as sensationalized depictions of immigration enforcement under President Trump.
Welker pressed further, questioning whether it was now official policy to deport U.S. citizen children alongside undocumented parents without due process. Rubio firmly rejected that premise.
"No, no, again: if someone’s in the country unlawfully, illegally, that person gets deported. If that person has a child, and says, ‘I want to take my child with me,’ the government honors that choice," he said.
He pointed out the impossibility of the alternative. "If we denied parents the option to bring their children, the headline would be: ‘U.S. holding hostage two-year-old, four-year-old, seven-year-old, while mother deported.’” The real choice, Rubio asserted, lies with the parents—not with immigration officials.