White House discusses Trump’s plans for ‘sanctuary cities’ and potential deportations
At his daily briefing on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not rule out the possibility that President Trump could have federal officials begin proactively deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
Trump gave a speech earlier in the day in which he asked local law enforcement officials to assist with deportations by alerting the Department of Homeland Security about “who the illegal immigrant gang members are.” In light of the president’s remarks, Yahoo News asked Spicer whether the president would consider having the DHS or Customs and Border Control agents proactively begin deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, if he doesn’t get the cooperation he wants from local police.
Spicer did not directly address the possibility of federal agents stepping up deportation efforts. He suggested instead that Trump’s priorities are the construction of a wall on the United States’ southern border and the implementation of his executive orders on immigration.
“Look, when you talk about immigration and what he’s doing — whether it’s the wall or enforcing existing regulations or visa reform — I don’t think anybody questions the president’s commitment to border security and immigration reform. In fact, it’s usually quite the opposite,” Spicer said.
“So, when it comes to the steps that he’s going to take, I think I’ve addressed this multiple times what his priorities are going to be,” he continued. “You’ve seen [Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly] talk about construction of the wall, his implementation of the executive order to keep people out.”
Both the DHS and CBP have the authority to operate within 100 miles of any of the country’s external boundaries. This includes land borders as well as populous coastline areas, encompassing an area that the American Civil Liberties Union claims includes “roughly two–thirds” of the population.
Last month, Trump signed executive orders with dramatic measures to curb illegal immigration. They included a request for “the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border” and measures designed to push local authorities to assist with deportations. He took steps to empower local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws, and called for the defunding of so-called sanctuary cities, which have opted to refuse to hand over some undocumented immigrants for deportation.
Yahoo News pressed Spicer about whether defunding is the only tool the president might use to encourage stricter immigration enforcement in cities where local officials are not cooperating. Spicer declined to answer.
“I’m not going to get ahead of it,” he said.
Spicer went on to point to positive feedback that he said Trump had received at the event where he made his call upon local law enforcement to do more to assist with deportations. Trump was addressing the winter conference of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a gathering of urban sheriffs and police chiefs. On Tuesday, he met with sheriffs who support his immigration plans, and they gave him a letter of thanks.
“The support that they’ve issued on behalf of his executive actions and his agenda as a whole, these are the folks on the front lines in many cases … that are on the border that see what some of this does and how it affects families and businesses,” Spicer said.
He went on to argue that illegal immigration is costly both in terms of the money spent on enforcement efforts and “the cost that it has on our economy and our jobs.”
“So, you’re going to continue to see a flurry of activity over and over and over again to make sure that this president continues to show the importance that he puts on both border security and immigration reform,” Spicer said.
He also discussed Trump’s efforts to deter local officials from adopting “sanctuary city” policies when a journalist from Cincinnati, Ohio, Courtis Fuller, asked him if Cincinnati would face “economic or other sanctions” over its recent decision to become a sanctuary city.
“The president’s going to do everything he can within the scope of the executive order to make sure that cities who don’t comply with it — counties and other institutions that remain sanctuary cities — don’t get federal government funding, in compliance with the executive order,” he said.
Spicer noted that after Trump issued the order, Miami’s mayor, Carlos Giménez, a Republican who backed Hillary Clinton, asked local officials to help with federal immigration detention requests. The press secretary suggested that other jurisdictions should follow this example.
“I think more … areas like Miami-Dade down in Florida understand the importance of this order,” he said. “We hope cities like Cincinnati and other communities around the country follow their lead and comply with that.”
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