The White House on Monday disputed that President Trump was calling for those who enter the country illegally to lose their due process rights when…
The White House on Monday disputed that President Trump was calling for those who enter the country illegally to lose their due process rights when he tweeted that they should be removed “with no Judges or Court Cases.”
“Just because you don’t see a judge doesn’t mean you don’t receive due process,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during Monday’s press briefing.
“The president would like to see us stop people from illegally entering the country at all,” she added. “The president would like us to secure the borders and have a very legal and easy immigration process so people can come here the right way.”
In addition to suggesting illegal immigrants be denied access to a court, the president has in recent days ridiculed efforts to hire additional immigration judges to adjudicate asylum claims and immigration cases.
His comments drew criticism from immigration advocates and lawmakers who argued that his tweets were alluding to unconstitutional practices.
However, Sanders repeatedly indicated that Congress will have to enact immigration reform for meaningful change to occur on the ground.
“The president’s laid out what he’d like to see,” she said. “We put out the things we’d like to see in an immigration package months ago. We’re still waiting on congress to give ability to do that.»
“So unless Congress acts nothing is actually going to change,” she added.
The comments were reminiscent of last week when Sanders and other Trump administration officials claimed that only Congress could end the practice of separating migrant families at the border.
However, the president signed an executive order last Wednesday halting the practice.
Trump then threw cold water on ongoing efforts in Congress to pass immigration reform, saying House Republicans are “wasting their time” by trying to pass a more moderate bill that includes some of the president’s priorities.
Sanders said Monday that the president was expressing skepticism because the bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate.
«Democrats in the Senate have made clear they’re not going to support this, and because we need at least some Democrats to get on board… until they change their mind we’re going to continue looking at the best ways we can fix these problems,» she said.
