ICYMI: On KTAR, Kelly Calls Out Trump for Targeting Military Families, Business Owners for Deportation Instead of Criminals

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined KTAR's Heidi Hommel to call out the Trump administration's reckless immigration enforcement, which is targeting military families, law-abiding business owners, and community members instead of the criminals Trump promised to go after.

Kelly has helped secure the release of Arizonans wrongfully detained, including Annie Ramos, the newlywed wife of a U.S. soldier who was detained on base; Maria Pelaez, the mother of an active U.S. Marine Kelly met with while she was held in ICE detention in Arizona; and Kelly Yu, a Phoenix restaurant owner with three businesses and seventy employees whom he also met in detention. Most recently, Kelly assisted in the release of Maisa Lopes Eliaser, the wife of an Army soldier.

Sen. Kelly speaks to KTAR's Heidi Hommel.

Watch to the full interview here. See key excerpts below:

On Trump going after military families and business owners instead of criminals…

"The President said he was going to track down criminals, gang members, drug dealers who are undocumented and deport them. The person you mentioned, spouse of a servicemember deported to Colombia. Not in that category. Same thing with Kelly Yu. Same thing with Maria, the mom of a Marine. They're just going after people just to jack up numbers because he wants the deportation number to be higher.

"That doesn't make us a better country. Tearing communities apart, taking a grandmother away from the grandchildren of a Marine. A woman here in Phoenix who has three businesses and seventy employees. Does it make us a better country to deport her? No."

On ICE terrorizing communities and violating constitutional rights…

"We need to get this right. And ICE has to stop terrorizing communities. We have people that have been killed in the streets because of how aggressive they've been on immigration enforcement, and it's not right, and they're violating people's constitutional rights. We've seen this over and over and over again."

This interview builds on Kelly's efforts to fix our broken immigration system and support the communities it affects. In February, Kelly blasted the administration on its treatment of immigrants and demanded answers from DHS after confirming hundreds of DACA recipients were arrested or removed from the country. In April, he called for an immigration system that enforces the law without tearing families apart. Most recently, he called out the Trump administration after it awarded a no-bid contract to a Trump-aligned law firm to represent unaccompanied children in immigration court.