White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that a plan to release detained illegal immigrants into sanctuary cities is “an option on the table,” but is not the administration’s first choice for addressing illegal immigration.
“We’ve talked about a number of different things over the last two years that we’d love to see happen,” Sanders told ABC News in an interview. “Certainly, this wouldn’t be our first choice because ideally we wouldn’t be dealing with the massive influx of illegal immigrants coming across the border.”
The Washington Post reported last week the White House weighed a proposal to release detained immigrants detained at the southern border into sanctuary cities, specifically targeting places that are home to many of the president’s political opponents, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco.
Trump himself acknowledged Friday his administration is giving “strong considerations” to placing illegal immigrants in those cities.
But Sanders said the White House would prefer for Congress, and Democrats in particular, to work with the president to fix the nation’s immigration laws to address the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, which the Trump administration has called a national security and humanitarian crisis.
“If Democrats continue to be unwilling to do that, then we’re going to look at all of our options and don’t want to put all of the burden on one or two border communities,” she said.
Though there were concerns the proposal from the White House would run afoul of the law, the president said Saturday night he had the “absolute legal right” to release illegal immigrants into sanctuary cities.
Sanders said the White House is looking at “options that make it possible.”
“Democrats including Obama’s secretary from homeland security are now acknowledging that this is a crisis,” she said, referencing former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. “They can either deal with it at the border and stop it from getting worse or they’re going to have to take on some of that burden in their communities if that becomes an option. Again, that’s not our first choice, probably not even our second or third choice, but we have to look at all options.”
