President Trump referred to efforts to deport criminal immigrants as “a military option” simply as an analogy for the efficiency of the deportations, according to his spokesman.
“The president was using that as an adjective,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at Thursday’s briefing. “It’s happening with the precision [of a military operation].”
Spicer’s remarks clarified a comment that threatened to undermine the message Trump’s top Cabinet officials delivered during a trip to Mexico. Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly emphasized that the deportations would not be carried out by military forces, within hours of Trump contradicting that statement.
“The president was clearly describing the manner in which this was being done,” Spicer said. “[It’s] being done with very much a high degree of precision and in a flawless manner, in terms of making sure that the orders are carried out and it’s done in a very streamlined and efficient manner.”
Trump discussed the deportations during a meeting with CEOs at the White House. “We are getting gang members out, we’re getting drug lords out, we’re getting really bad dudes out of this country and at a rate that nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said Thursday at the White House. “And it’s a military operation because what has been allowed to come into our country when you see gang violence that you’ve read about like never before . . . much of that is people that are here illegally. And they’re rough and they’re tough, but they’re not tough like our people.”
That statement sounded a different note than Kelly, who took accused the media of misrepresenting his department’s efforts to round up criminal immigrants. “There will be no use of military forces in immigration,” Kelly said Thursday in Mexico City. “At least half of you try to get that right, because it continually comes up in the reporting.”
Spicer emphasized that there is no disagreement between Trump and Kelly. “[It’s] being done with very much a high degree of precision and in a flawless manner, in terms of making sure that the orders are carried out and it’s done in a very streamlined and efficient manner,” he said.
