A directive to immigration officials across the country to try to portray undocumented immigrants swept up in mass raids as criminals  came directly from then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, The Intercept has learned. The redacted emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by students at Vanderbilt University Law School, show that while hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up across the country, DHS officials tried — and largely failed — to engineer a narrative that would substantiate the administration’s claims that the raids were motivated by public safety concerns.

As hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up across the country last February in the first mass raids of the Trump  administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials went out  of their way to portray the people they detained as hardened criminals, instructing field offices to highlight the worst cases for the media and attempting to distract attention from the dozens of individuals who were apprehended despite having no criminal background at all.