John Kelly rebukes Trump on immigrants at border: 'They're not criminals'

Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly spoke at an event at Duke University Wednesday night, and according to NBC News, he rebuked his former boss on a few different issues.

"They’re overwhelmingly not criminals," Kelly said in a break from what the president has said of the immigrants on the United States' southern border seeking asylum, per NBC. "They’re people coming up here for economic purposes...I don’t blame them for that," Kelly added.

NBC noted that "on the administration’s handling of children at the southern border, [Kelly] was critical [of Trump], though he blamed then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for catching the White House by surprise with the adoption of a 'zero tolerance' policy."

The former chief of staff also "expressed disagreement with deploying U.S. troops, even National Guard troops, to the border, as Trump did last fall before the midterm elections," NBC wrote.

“Generally speaking I would always look for another way to do it,” the network quoted Kelly as saying in response to a question at Duke.

Read the full report here.