Border Czar Tom Homan speaks to reporters outside the White House.
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00:00On the weekend, President Trump was talking about U.S. troops potentially needing to fight back against drug cartels in Mexico.
00:06How serious of an idea is that?
00:09Well, there's a reason the president designated them in terrorist organizations, right?
00:13Drug cartels have killed more Americans than recognized terrorist organizations before then, right?
00:19I mean, they killed more Americans than ISIS or any other terrorist groups.
00:24I mean, they've killed hundreds of thousands of people in America.
00:26So, they're a terrorist organization. We need to treat them like terrorist organizations.
00:31What about Alcatraz?
00:35Well, we need detention beds.
00:37And, you know, we do contracts in a lot of states, a lot of local municipalities.
00:43So, I think it's certainly an option, especially for the significant public safety threats and national security threats.
00:50I mean, it should be on the table.
00:51Is the administration looking at countries beyond El Salvador for mass deportation?
00:57CBS News has some reporting that there's talks underway with refugees and African elsewhere.
01:05There's talks underway with other countries that are willing to take illegal aliens that their own countries won't take them.
01:12So, we'll find a third safe country to take them.
01:15So, yeah, there's talks underway.
01:18Do you have any cost estimates on reopening of Alcatraz?
01:23I just answered that.
01:24I mean, it should be on the table because we need detention beds.
01:30And I think that's an appropriate place for the significant public safety threats, national security threats.
01:37Why not?
01:38What do you mean, what's the difference between that?
01:39But do you have an idea how expensive it is?
01:41I have no idea.
01:42How many countries are you talking about potentially in the nation?
01:45No comment.
01:47What sort of impact do you see in having the self-deportation offering $1,000 down for a few minutes to self-deport through the app?
01:54Well, I think we'll have some movement, right?
01:58Because I think people are finally getting the message, if you leave on your own, you can take advantage of legal programs and come back.
02:05But if we have to go through the process of formally deporting you, there are mandatory bars against you for up to 20 years, sometimes forever.
02:13So, you know, if you want to take advantage, come back as a, you know, a worker, a tourist visa, a visitor's visa, a student visa, or have a U.S. citizen child.
02:21If you have a petition for you in the future, leave yourself open to the opportunity of legal entry.
02:28Do things the right way.
02:29There's millions of people standing in line right now doing things the right way.
02:33Taking the test, doing the background investigations, paying their fees, they're sitting in the back seat.
02:39While millions of people are allowed into this country under the Biden administration that simply don't qualify for asylum, most of them will lose that asylum claim.
02:45So while they're clogging up the whole system, in addition to those who want to come in legally, while the millions of fraudulent asylum claims under Biden administration, there are people in this world who really are escaping fear and persecution from their homeland.
03:01But they're sitting in the back seat, too, because millions of people cheated the system, come across the border, released in the United States that caused a significant backlog in immigration court.
03:10And that wasn't by accident, it's by design.
03:13Let's just overwhelm the system.
03:15So it takes five, seven, nine years to go through the whole process if they take advantage of the appeals process.
03:25They know exactly what they're doing.
03:26That's why they weren't in ICE detention.
03:27In ICE detention, they get a hearing within 35 days.
03:30But if at least millions of the country overwhelm the system so they don't get a hearing in five, seven, nine years, then maybe there's a Democrat administration in power.
03:38Now we can have an amnesty.
03:39They know exactly what they're doing.
03:41They're playing the long game.
03:42But we're going to beat them at it.
03:43We're going to ramp up interior enforcement operations and removals.
03:48We're going to enforce the law.
03:49We're not going to ignore the law like the prior administration did.
03:51The president says he doesn't know what his responsibilities are under Article 5 of the Constitution.
03:58Who would it be who would educate him about that?
04:00Would it be you?
04:01I think the president is one of the, if not the most knowledgeable president that we've ever had.
04:07Look, people can beat on President Trump all you want.
04:10President Trump's a game changer.
04:12I've worked for six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan.
04:15I'm a border guy.
04:16Even President Clinton and Obama took steps to secure the border because they understood you can't have national security if you want border security.
04:25No one did more than President Trump during his first administration.
04:28We had the Biden administration the most secure border in my lifetime, and he purposely unsecured it.
04:33First president in the history of the nation to do that.
04:36Look at what President Trump achieved in eight weeks.
04:38He did in eight weeks what Joe Biden couldn't and wouldn't do in four years.
04:43We have the most secure border in the history of this nation right now because of President Trump.
04:49Greatest president of my lifetime.
04:51You can quote me on that.
04:52Thank you, Mr. Obama.