Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., suggested Sunday that President Trump is openly considering a plan to send illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities just to “make everybody crazy.”
“I don’t know whether it’s legal or illegal. I mean, maybe he’s just saying this to make everybody crazy. Make everybody talk about it on their shows,” Scott said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Scott also questioned the existence and legality of sanctuary cities, which have policies in place preventing them from cooperating with federal officials on immigration, and said more must be done to get at the root of the problem — securing the U.S. border with Mexico.
Being from a state with a large immigrant pool, Scott said he would like to see more legal immigration.
“What I do know is I’ve been up there, I’ve been in the Senate for 90 days, we’re not securing our border. We’re not enforcing our laws,” Scott said. “Sanctuary cities are illegal.”
“What I don’t get is why don’t we try to solve the problem. We don’t want illegal immigration,” Scott said. “ … We want legal immigration. I’m from a state where we love immigrants. But we want legal immigration.”
In response to a question from host Jake Tapper about Trump reportedly telling Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan that he would pardon him if he was convicted of violating immigration laws. Scott pushed back on that notion, saying no matter how upset the president is about the situation at the border, he must follow the law.
“We have to comply with every law,” Scott said. “ … You don’t have a right to pick and choose the law. … Let’s all comply with the law. Let’s fix immigration.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders denied Trump preemptively offered to pardon his top border official, who is now acting Homeland Security secretary.
