-- a few 'cause I gotta run to a meeting.
May I ask you some-
Yes.
When you were in China recently, obviously at the summit, uh, the president brought up Jimmy Lai and also Pastor Ezra Jin who are in Chinese detention, have you heard anything since then, your request to free them?
I'll let the, I'll let the State Department answer any of those questions. Yes?
Okay, I wanna ask you about Cuba? At this point, you know, Secretary Rubio earlier today suggested maybe a diplomatic path isn't the strongest likelihood. What's your take on that? Um, and where did the consideration stand at this point?
Well, on Cuba specifically, the most important thing to understand from a national security standpoint is that you have a nation that is 45 minute flight time from our shores, that has been a foothold for adversaries for generations. So when you think about it from a national security standpoint, which is a foundational way to look at your question, you could have an adversary of the United States send, for example, attack drones to Cuba that would then be within very short reach of the United States territory and its citizens.
We can't have a foothold for enemies, adversaries, or terrorists that close to American territory, that close to our shores. So you saw the indictment yesterday, of course, of Raúl Castro for murdering American citizens. You've seen the sanctions that have been put into place, you've seen the actions the administration has taken.
Ultimately up to Cuba whether or not they make the decision to reform, to have a free country, to be a friend and partner of the United States, or if they choose a different path. And so ultimately, in that way, their fate is in their own hands.
House and Senate, leaving town, CBP and ICE funding doesn't likely look like it's going to make it to the president's desk by June 1st, [Inaudible]?
Well, I would just, and I appreciate the way you framed the question, but I would just say that the president's been incredibly clear that there is, um, nothing more important than ensuring full funding for federal law enforcement, especially and including the brave heroes of ICE and Border Patrol. I would note that in addition to ICE's work, very essential, on deportations, ICE also has one of the largest criminal investigative portfolios in the entire US government.
So, uh, a, uh, major component of ICE is Homeland Security Investigations, which is a federal criminal investigative arm with the same set and body of authorities as the FBI. They do a huge amount of work with Secret Service, for example, on protecting America from assassinations and lethal plotting. They do the lion's share of work on child trafficking, child smuggling, child pornography, also drug trafficking, counter-cartel, and many other essential investigations that relate to public safety.
So it is a huge threat to public safety to not have full funding for the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol. And of course, on the southern border, you're dealing with threats every day from foreign terrorist organizations that operate on and control the territory all across Mexico, on the Mexican side of the US southern border.
I have time just for one more question. I'm sorry.
[Inaudible]. There's information in Brazil that next week President Trump's going to meet the Bolsonaro's son. Do you have this-
I don't have any update on that, sorry.
[Inaudible]. Is there, is there someone that the president is unhappy with-
Sorry, I don't have answer to that question. [Inaudible].
Senate Republicans don't seem to be interested in the 1.8 billion fund, that clearly was a sticky point today up on Capitol Hill. Is there anyone that the president is reaching out to, making calls to? It's not going to be on his desk by June 1st, which I think is a, a deadline he had set earlier. So-
Well, that's a good closing question only because it allows me to say this, which is that the, we lived through four years of, more than four years actually, but I'll just say four years in this case, of unimaginable weaponzin- -- weaponization of the federal government against innocent people. We've had so many lives, it really goes back, so I would say further.
But so many lives destroyed, so many livelihoods ruined, so many people who are deprived of their fundamental rights and freedoms as American citizens. And this settlement is just a small measure of the justice that they're owed. Anyways, thank you all for your time.