Gonzales: Targeting workers instead of convicted criminals for deportation means 'government has failed us'

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said Sunday that targeting others besides convicted criminals for deportation means “government has failed us.”

“You know, if we're going after the guy that's picking tomatoes or the nurse at the local hospital and we're not going after the convicted criminal, then our government has failed us,” Gonzales told ABC News’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”

President-elect Trump, a member of Gonzales's party, pushed a mass deportation plan throughout his bid for the presidency this year. He promoted a "Day 1 agenda" mostly centered on border and immigration crackdowns. At many rallies, the president-elect said, "On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history."

“You know, our country was built on those fleeing persecution, and it would be, it would be just absolutely terrible if we don't protect those that are doing it the right way,” Gonzales said. “Legal immigration should never be mixed with these hardened criminals.”

Last week, in response to a question from journalist Cecilia Vega on CBS's "60 Minutes" about the possibility of going forward with "mass deportation without separating families," Tom Homan, Trump's pick for "border czar" in his upcoming administration said "there is" and that "Families can be deported together."

Homan later said in an interview this month that “U.S. citizens” and “legal immigrants are perfectly safe, for God’s sakes.”

Trump has said that mass deportations will be aimed at people in the U.S. illegally, chiefly those with a criminal record.

“If the message is ‘We're here to deport your abuelita,’ that's not gonna work well,” Gonzales said Sunday, using the Spanish word for grandmother.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.