Good to see you bright and early on this Monday morning. As you know, this week marks the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, and President Trump's first 100 days have undoubtedly been the most monumental and historic of any administration in American history. President Trump has already delivered on hundreds of promises he made to the American people, and we will continue to talk about all of them throughout this week.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Tomorrow I will host a press briefing at this same time, bright and early again, to highlight the Trump administration's economic accomplishments with our Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. And tomorrow night President Trump will travel to Michigan to discuss all that he has achieved on behalf of the American people.
Hello. Good afternoon.
On Wednesday, the president will host an open press cabinet meeting where each cabinet member will discuss their success thus far and their plans for the future. Today we kick off 100 Day Week with a focus on the president's historic effort to secure our southern border. Later this afternoon, President Trump will sign an executive order on law and order and another executive order on sanctuary cities.
Thank you for coming today. It's great to be with you. This is our first official influencer briefing here at the White House. I want to thank you all so much for joining us on what is day 99 of the Trump administration. And as I promised at my first briefing as press secretary back in January, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who traditionally has covered this institution.
The first EO will strengthen and unleash America's law enforcement to pursue criminals and protect innocent citizens. The second EO is centered around protecting American communities from criminal aliens, and it will direct the attorney general and secretary of Homeland Security to publish a list of state and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Tens of millions of Americans are now turning to social media and independent media outlets to consume their news, and we are embracing that change, not ignoring it. It's well past time that the White House press operation reflected the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925. And thanks to President Trump, a select group of DC-based journalists no longer have a monopoly over press access here at the White House.
After these are signed, the president will have signed more than 140 executive orders already, rapidly approaching the total number signed by the Biden administration over the course of four years in office. Speaking of Joe Biden, it was his awful open border policies that recklessly allowed more than 10 million illegal aliens to invade the United States over the past four years.
All journalists, outlets and voices have a seat at the table now, and you being here today for this briefing proves that. Today officially marks the 99th day of promises made and kept by President Trump. Our primary focus today is how President Trump has fulfilled one of his central campaign promises to the American people in record time, ending the massive illegal invasion and securing our nation's southern and northern borders.
Innocent Americans like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Moran and so many others were viciously murdered at the hands of these illegal aliens as a result of Biden's dereliction of duty. That's why one of President Trump's central campaign promises was to secure the border and end this invasion. In just under 100 days, 99 now to be exact, the president has overwhelmingly delivered on that promise.
As we know, Joe Biden allowed millions of criminal illegal aliens to pour into our country over the past four years. And as we all know, a significant number of those aliens have been vicious gang members, murderers, rapists and pedophiles. Innocent Americans like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Moran and many others have been murdered because of Joe Biden's open border.
America's borders are now secure because of President Trump. He has restored the rule of law, enforced our immigration laws, and defended America's sovereignty. The president immediately declared a national emergency on the southern border, deployed the US military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion, and ended reckless catch and release policies.
President Trump made a promise to the American people, to all of you and your audiences to end the carnage and keep our country safe. And he has overwhelmingly delivered on that promise. He immediately declared a national emergency on the southern border, deployed the US military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion, and ended reckless catch and release policies.
The results have been nothing short of extraordinary. Between President Trump's inauguration and April 1 of this month, only nine illegal aliens were released into the United States, a staggering 99.99 percent decrease from the more than 184,000 illegal aliens who were released into the country under Biden during the same period last year.
And as a result, between the inauguration and April 1st of this month, only nine illegal aliens were released into the United States of America. This is a staggering 99.99 percent decrease from more than the 184,000 illegal aliens who were released into the country under Joe Biden during that same period last year.
The number of unaccompanied illegal alien children arriving at the border has also hit a record low. Total attempted illegal crossings at the southwest border hit a record low in February, only to fall to another new record low again last month in March. Just listen to these incredible numbers. In March 2024 under Joe Biden, Border Patrol encountered approximately 140,000 illegal aliens at the southwest border.
You can't get much better than 99.99 percent decrease. Total attempted illegal crossings at the southwest border hit a record low in February, only to fall to another record low again last month in March. President Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law requiring illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence to be detained.
One year later, in March 2025 under President Trump, Border Patrol encountered just over 7,000 illegal aliens at the southwest border. That's another 95 percent decrease from the prior year. The first piece of legislation President Trump signed into law was the Laken Riley Act, which required -- requires illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence to be detained.
And he reestablished the successful Remain in Mexico policy from his first term. The president has also restarted construction of his signature border wall, more than 85 miles have been built in are in various stages of construction and planning. He designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, invoked the Alien Enemies Act to apprehend, detain and remove these massive threats who have flooded our country.
President Trump also reestablished the successful remain in Mexico policy from his first term to ensure that aliens who arrive at our southern border and claim asylum are returned to Mexico to await their hearings instead of being allowed into our country while they wait. The president has also restarted construction of his signature advanced border wall.
And the Trump administration, as you heard from our border czar, Tom Homan, earlier today, is working literally 24/7, around the clock, to successfully arrest and deport illegal criminals and foreign terrorists from our communities, your communities. We're in the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history and, despite the legacy media's fear mongering and lies about this, we will continue with these successful operations because we know that's what the American people are expecting from this president and that's why they overwhelmingly reelected him to this office.
More than 85 miles of new border barrier are already in various stages of construction and planning. And Border Patrol, in collaboration with the Department of Defense and the great state of Texas, have deployed 75 additional miles of temporary barriers across the southern border. The Trump administration, as you know, has also ended the disastrous CBP One app, which Joe Biden exploited to facilitate the migration of nearly one million illegal aliens into the country.
Over the past weekend, it was announced Operation Tidal Wave was a joint effort in ICE Miami and Florida law enforcement agencies. Nearly 800 illegal aliens were arrested during the first four days alone. I don't know if we have any Floridians in here, but you're welcome. Operation Tidal Wave is a preview of what is to come around the country.
The Department of Homeland Security has relaunched this as the CBP Home app to provide illegal aliens in the US a straightforward way to declare their intent to voluntarily depart. For years Joe Biden's weakness and open border policies allowed vicious cartels to functionally control, through a campaign of terror, rape and brutal force, nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border.
Large-scale operations employing our state and local law enforcement partners to get criminal aliens off our streets, and we will not apologize for this. This is the first of its kind multi-agency immigration enforcement operation coordinated by ICE with federal partners. And this multi-day operation has so far resulted in nearly 800 illegal aliens apprehended in four days, including Ms. 13 murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and human rights abuses.
President Trump has put a stop to this in record time. He designated these heinous cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoked the Alien Enemies Act to immediately apprehend, detain, and remove these massive threats who have flooded our country with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs.
So, safe to say President Trump made a promise to all of you, your audiences and the American public to secure our nation's borders. He has overwhelmingly delivered on that promise. And you will see the legacy media has nitpicked stories to try to drum up sympathy for people who broke our nation's laws. This White House has sympathy for American citizens, for law abiding families who are doing what's right, who came here the right way, that includes legal immigrants who have come to this country, paid their dues, waited their turn and are now being cheated and ripped off by -- or were being cheated and ripped off by the previous administration.
The Trump administration is working 24/7 to successfully arrest and deport these illegal criminals and foreign terrorists from our communities. We are in the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history. Over this past weekend, it was announced that, through Operation Tidal Wave, a joint effort between ICE Miami and Florida law enforcement agencies, nearly 800 illegal aliens were arrested during the first four days alone.
We are putting Americans first every day and we applaud the ICE agents and Border Patrol agents who are on the ground doing this important work. That's just the border. Of course, the president has been working incredibly hard to unleash the might of our economy here at home. He's in the process of negotiating fair trade deals abroad with many countries around the world who have come to the table because the president is using the leverage of this office of the United States of America to leverage our economic might and to cut good trade deals.
Among those arrested were a Colombian murderer, alleged MS-13 and 18th Street gang members, and a Russian with a red notice for manslaughter. And on the other side of the country in the early Sunday morning hours, DOJ and DHS together launched a joint raid of an illegal alien underground nightclub used by Tren de Aragua in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
You also look at what's happening on the foreign -- on the world stage. When it comes to foreign policy, the president has put the world on notice. They all understand that we have a commander in chief in the Oval Office who is going to put America and our troops first, who's going to do what's right for our country, our nation, our people, even if that means making tough decisions.
DHS took more than 100 illegal aliens into custody and many drugs and weapons were also seized. Operation Tidal Wave is a preview of what is to come around this country, large scale operations that employ our state and local law enforcement partners to get criminal illegal aliens off our streets. As always, President Trump and our entire administration are grateful for the courageous law enforcement officers who are putting their lives on the line every single day to protect their fellow Americans and to keep our country safe.
And we are closer today to a peace deal in Russia and Ukraine, certainly, than we were when we took office on January 20th. If you look at the situation in the Middle East, Israel has never had a stronger friend than they do right now in the Oval Office with President Trump. We've had more than 75 hostages who have returned home from around the world or wrongfully detained individuals.
After four years of being vilified and hamstrung by the Biden administration, heroic ICE and CBP officers finally have a president who has their backs and is allowing them to do the jobs they signed up to do. There is no person who can attest to that more than our incredible border czar are here at the White House, Tom Homan, who has dedicated his professional career to protecting our country and enforcing the law.
You can only do that if you have a president who's unafraid to use the leverage of the United States. So, there are many accomplishments to talk about this week. I haven't even mentioned the restoring commonsense effort of this administration to get men out of women's sports, to root out DEI and waste, fraud and abuse from our federal bureaucracy.
I will let Tom deliver some short remarks and then we'll open it up for questions today. Thanks for being here, Tom.
The president has done so much in such little time and we're working very hard here every day. We appreciate all that you do on social media to push what the president is saying, but also sometimes question it and we relish independent journalism. And I hope you all have seen the president, myself, anybody in this administration, we are unafraid to take questions.
Thank you. Just a few things. Look, I started in Border Patrol in 1984. I've been at this for over 40 years. I worked for six presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan. Every president I ever worked for took border security seriously because you can't have national security if you don't have strong border security.
This has truly been the most transparent and accessible presidency in American history. So, with that, let's kick it off and I'm happy to take your question first, Erin.
We got to know who's coming in, what's coming in, where it's coming in, why it's coming in, right? Even President Obama and President Clinton took some steps to secure the border because they understood national security was important. Joe Biden was the first president in the history of this nation who came into office and unsecured a border on purpose.
Thanks so much, Karoline, both for having us and for granting me the first question here. And I can attest to the deportations in Florida. My Uber drivers finally speak English again. So, thank you for that. But my question for you is, what are the administration's plans for those who continue to defy the executive orders?
That's just a fact. We handed the Biden administration -- after President Trump's first administration, we handed the Biden administration the most secure border in my lifetime and he unsecured it on purpose. Now, President Trump and this administration here, the success is unprecedented. We beat Trump's first administration on border success.
Most notably on my mind are the ones related to what some would call trans men, I would call men masquerade as trans women, which are men masquerading as girls in girls' sports.
Border numbers are historic low. Today, as I'm standing here, we are the most secure border in the history of this nation and the numbers prove it. President Trump's policies are saving lives every day. There's been studies done that says 31 percent of women that make that journey through use of cartels get sexually assaulted.
Sure, obey federal law or you will be prosecuted, obey federal law and you could see your federal funding cut whether you are at college or university. We have seen the president, again, using the leverage of this administration and to negotiate deals with some of the biggest colleges and universities in this country.
When president Trump has illegal immigration down 96 percent, when 96 percent less people are coming, how many women are being sexually assaulted by the cartels? How many children aren't dying making that journey? How many women and children aren't being sex trafficked into this nation? How many known suspected terrorists aren't making it into this country?
And if they don't want to come to the negotiating table to apologize for the federal laws they have broken, to apologize for allowing Jewish American students on our nation's campuses to be unlawfully bullied and harassed. Then there's going to be consequences for that illegal behavior. Same thing with men in women's sports.
How many pounds of fentanyl isn't getting into this country to kill young Americans? How many women and children aren't sex trafficked? Under Joe Biden, sex trafficking was up 600 percent. We had 4,000 aliens dying making that journey. We had a quarter million Americans dead from fentanyl that came across an open border.
The president signed a very strong executive order making it the policy of the United States federal government that there are only two sexes, male and female. And we are not going to tolerate biological men competing in sports or impeding in private spaces for women like myself or you. And we've seen states defy this federal order.
President Trump's policy saves lives every day. Even the border wall saves lives. The people want to hate on the border wall. Every place a border barrier has been built, illegal immigration has declined, illegal drug flows decline. But you know what no one talks about, the border wall saves lives because the most vulnerable, the women and children, can't get over that wall, which means they're going to a place where there's not a wall and what's waiting on them, the men and women of the United States Border Patrol who will take care of those humanitarian needs, the health needs right off the bat.
You've seen the state of Maine, unfortunately, because of their liberal governor who nobody in that state disagrees with, I will add being from New England, I can attest to that. People are incredibly fed up with her trying to oppose this commonsense message. You've seen young women who have had to go on television to plead with their governor, please stop letting men play against me in sports.
We just [Inaudible] the numbers. Let me talk about a few numbers that are important to me. Under Biden administration, we averaged over 11,000, many days over 12,000, even some days 15,000 illegal entrants in the United States, 15,000. You know what the number was the last 24 hours, 178. 15,000 to 178, unprecedented success.
We shouldn't live in a country where that even has to happen. The president deeply understands that; that's why he signed that EO. And when Maine decided not to follow it, the Department of Justice sued them. So, anyone who disobeys federal law will be either prosecuted, sued or say goodbye to your federal funding.
On an average day in the Biden administration, known got-aways, people we knew crossed the border because they're on video, drone traffic or sensor traffic, crossed the border, weren't apprehended, weren't fingerprinted, weren't vetted. Average day under Joe Biden, more than 1,800 got-aways. Yesterday, 38, 38 too many.
Sure, how about to the back in the red tie?
We'll get that to zero, but we went from 1,800 to 38. And finally, that was said earlier, under the first 100 days, it was actually January 20th to April 1st. Last year, 184,000 illegal aliens were released into the United States. Under this administration, nine. Four of them were material witnesses in a criminal investigation.
Hi. One of my main questions is when will the border wall be completed? Because it's been talked about for a very long time and a lot of people want to know when can we expect that to be done.
We need them here to testify in a serious criminal trial. Four was extreme medical condition. We couldn't return them because they're in such bad shape. And one was a humanitarian issue. This is unprecedented success. The border is secure. President Trump is saving lives. President Trump has proven no one does this better than President Trump.
Sure. I don't have an official timeline for you, but certainly it's a priority of the administration. The president has talked about this for years, right? It was his signature campaign promise dating back to 2016. People laughed at him when he originally brought this idea up, but now the whole world recognizes a border wall is effective.
There is no equal. There is not even close. So God bless the men and women of the Border Patrol. God bless the men and women of ICE, who strap a gun to the hip every day, put on a Kevlar vest to not only secure our border and protect our national security, but the ICE agents in the interior. They're removing public safety threats and national security threats every day.
It's a necessary means to secure your nation's territorial borders. Democrats like to have borders outside of their homes, or walls outside of their homes for a reason because they know it repels invaders, and that's why the president wants to do that at the southern border. There have been more than 85 miles built just since January 20th. It's obviously the goal of this administration to build as much border wall as we possibly can, and we need congress' help to do that.
While you're all sleeping at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, there are men and women out there enforcing the law, making this country safe again and we're going to keep doing it full speed ahead. So I'll leave it at that.
We need more federal funding. The president is working closely with Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune to pass a solid reconciliation package that not only provides more funding for our ICE agents and Border Patrol agents on the ground, but to continue construction of that border wall as well.
Awesome. Thank you, Tom and thanks for all your great efforts. We do want to open it up to questions, if you have border-related for Mr. Homan, and I'm also happy to take any non-boarder related questions. I'm happy to take border questions too, but Tom is here offering his time, so we encourage you to ask him questions.
Sure, go ahead.
We'll start with our new media seat today, as always. Rogan O'Handley, former Hollywood entertainment lawyer.
Madam, congratulations on this endeavor to bring in new media. And can I start by thanking you for including the British [Laughter]. And I'm deeply proud to be the only British representative here. I hope at future events you might include more. Thank you. I've got two questions if I may be so bold regarding my little country across the pond.
I didn't know that, Rogan, who got fed up with the far-left ideologies of California and now post conservative political commentary online for his more than seven million followers across all major platforms. He joins us today from the great state of Florida. Why don't you kick us off today, Rogan?
First and foremost, it's regarding trade deals, so your vice president, Vice President Vance said no free speech, no deal. The British business secretary, whose name is Jonathan Reynolds, has said that in the trade talks with the Commerce Department, the US Commerce Department, there has been no material -- free speech has been not a material factor in negotiations.
Thank you, Karoline. In Trump's first 99 days, we've seen a coordinated assault on the rule of law by radical judges who are thwarting his agenda with an unprecedented number of national injunctions. These judges are providing more due process to violent MS-13 and Tren de Aragua illegal aliens than they did for American citizens who peacefully protested on January 6th. As Steven Miller has highlighted, it would be utterly ridiculous to have full trials and appeals for the more than 15 million illegal aliens that came across our border under Joe Biden.
So, my first question is, is it the case that free speech is no longer part of negotiations? And my second question, if I may, is in Britain we have had over a quarter of a million people issued non-crime hate incidents. As we speak there are people in prison for quite literally reposting memes. We have extensive prison sentences for tweets, social media posts and general free speech issues.
Many are now calling for Trump to circumvent these radical judges and consider suspending the writ of habeas corpus solely for these illegal aliens in accordance with the terms of article one section nine of the United States Constitution, which explicitly allows for such a measure when there is a rebellion or invasion.
Would the Trump administration consider political asylum for British citizens in such a situation?
There is strong precedent for this action, being that it was exercised by three of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and Democrats' favorite president of all time, FDR. All three of which are not only celebrated by historians, but are immortalized on our national currency with their faces on there.
Well, to your latter question, it's a very good one. I have not heard that proposed to the president nor have I spoken to him about that idea. But I certainly can, and talk to our national security team, and see if it's something the administration would entertain.
Furthermore, all three used it against American citizens where in this instance we would only be using it against illegal aliens. I think almost every reasonable American would agree that 15 million illegal aliens coming across our border under Joe Biden counts as an invasion, especially since many, as you highlighted, are now robbing, assaulting, raping and killing American citizens.
Yes, please.
Historic assaults on our republic require reciprocal action from our government. Can you please let us know if and when the Trump administration is planning to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to circumvent these radical judges who are infringing on his article two powers and to start shipping out illegals in mass?
To your first question about free speech in the United Kingdom, the vice president has been incredibly outspoken about this for good reason. And the president has spoken about this as well, directly with your prime minister when he was here for a visit to the White House. So, it remains a critical endeavor of ours to show the Brits and your country, which we love and admire, about the First Amendment and the importance of free speech in a sovereign nation.
I have not heard such discussions take place, but I can assure you that the president and the entire administration are certainly open to all legal and constitutional remedies to ensure we can continue with the promise of deporting illegal criminals from our nation's borders. And I also agree with the premise of your question, which doesn't happen in this room often, but I do agree with yours.
As for the trade talks, I understand they are moving in a very positive way with the United Kingdom. I don't want to get ahead of the president or our trade team on how those negotiations are going but I have heard they've been very positive and productive with the United Kingdom. And I will say the president always, both publicly and privately, speaks incredibly highly of your country.
It is absurd that the previous administration was allowed to allow 15 million, that we know about, illegal aliens into this country with very little pushback from our judicial branch. But this president is trying to simply enforce our nation's immigration laws and is facing roadblock after roadblock. So we're complying with court orders, but as Tom Homan has said, every day, we're going to continue to forge ahead with this mass deportation campaign and the president is open to all remedies to do that.
He has a good relationship with your prime minister, though they disagree on domestic policy issues. I've witnessed the camaraderie between them firsthand in the Oval Office and there is a deep mutual respect between our two countries that certainly the president upholds.
Thanks for being here today, Rogan. If you have anything else.
Thank you.
If I can also answer your question as far as the judges, look, we just arrested a judge, Pam Bondi, for impeding Ice enforcement removals. I said from day one, you don't have to support ICE's operations. You can support sanctuary cities if that's what you desire to do. Sanctuary cities can stand aside and watch ICE keep their community safe because any public official, whether your mayor or city councilman or governor, the number one responsibility is protection of the communities.
You're welcome. Mr. Spicer, it's good to see you here, my predecessor.
And ICE has been clear we're targeting public safety threats and national security threats. I can't believe there's any elected official, and especially a judge, that doesn't believe we should be doing that, and they should be helping us. But I said from day one, you can sit aside and watch.
Yeah, well, you know, I had to swing by and say, hi. Thank you for doing this. I think it's marvelous what you guys have done to bring in new voices. And it shows, it reflects the president's commitment to transparency and to bring this in. So, I've got two quick ones for you. The first, as you mentioned, reconciliation.
You can argue against us all you want and protest all you want, but when you cross that line, I've said this a thousand times, when you cross that line to impeachment or knowingly harboring, concealing an illegal alien from ICE, you will be [Inaudible] security, judge or not. And as far as releasing so many people, you know why -- you know why the Biden administration released millions of people in the United States?
Beyond that and what he hopes to get out of that, considering how slim the House majority is, what other legislative priorities does he want to see codified in law before this congress adjourns?
No one ever talks about. I'll talk about it. Why did they release people into the interior of the United States and put them -- rather than putting them into an ICE bed? Why not put them in an empty ICE bed, $127 a night, rather than in a hotel room at 500 bucks a night? They did it on purpose because, when you put them in ICE detention bed, they get a hearing in 35 days.
It's a really good question, Sean. I think reconciliation is the first and foremost question on the President's mind right now. It's a huge deal. We have to get it done. He's working closely with congress. In fact, he's meeting with Speaker Johnson, I think, in a few minutes today in the Oval Office to discuss this very bill and measure.
Court records show nine out of 10 people claim asylum, get an order removal, they're gone. But if you release them and put them in a hotel room at 500 bucks a night, their hearings can be five, seven, nine years if you pull out all appeals. And what are they hoping for then? That another Democrat administration's in power.
Aside from reconciliation, which we hope and are very confident will include more funding for border wall construction and mass deportations, as I mentioned earlier. But it's also very important that we get tax cuts passed. That is the second step in the Trump economic agenda. The president has used every executive lever he can to slash burdensome regulation.
They can award amnesty to millions. This is about selling this country out for future political power. That's what it was. The law clearly says, if you arrive at our border without proper documentation, you shall be detained, not maybe, not think about it, shall. And that's what President Trump's doing. Catch and release is over.
And we continue to do that every day across every agency. Administrator Zeldin is doing a fantastic job at the EPA, I may add, but every cabinet secretary is taking getting rid of regulation very seriously. The president is certainly working on unleashing American energy to drive down costs, but tax cuts are a critical component of really seeing the Trump economic formula be put together.
That's what the law says and that's what we've done.
So, he wants to see tax cuts passed in this reconciliation package, that includes no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our seniors of course, too. As for other measures that would be codified into law, certainly we've seen the president put forth commonsense executive orders and take really commonsense executive action that we would love congress to take further action on to ensure that the president's executive actions can remain long after his tenure, so you don't have another president come in here in eight years and undo some of the executive work that the president has worked so hard on. So, we want congress to continue getting to work but we've got to get this reconciliation bill passed first.
Mary?
Thank you. The second thing I have is just a question I get a lot, and I figured it best be addressed to you. You've done a phenomenal job opening up the briefing room, bringing in new voices. The president's commitment during the campaign to do long form podcasts was I think extremely helpful to this new media environment that we live in. But a lot of conservatives will ask me why does he sit down with people like Terry Moran of ABC or Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
A question on Abrego Garcia, if I can. The president recently said, when it comes to facilitating his release, he's leaving that up to his lawyers. So, just to be clear, have there been any negotiations between the US and El Salvador over his release or facilitating his release?
What is the rationale behind that, rewarding people who have very vehemently expressed disdain for him personally?
Look, I will tell you what the president of El Salvador told all of you in the Oval Office. El Salvador does not intend to smuggle a designated foreign terrorist back into the United States. He is an El Salvadorian national. That is his home country. That is where he belongs. And the administration intends to comply with what President Bukele said of El Salvador.
Because the president is unafraid and he is inspired by competition and he likes to talk to people face to face, and I think that's one of his best attributes and qualities. We live in an incredibly divisive country, unfortunately, that has been really the result and consequence frankly of the fake news and the hoaxes and lies they have driven at this president for the better part of the last decade now.
He does not intend to send that individual back.
But the fact that we still have a president who has been a victim of these hoaxes, these lies, these smears by so many legacy media outlets and reporters, yet he's still willing to sit down with them, look them in the eye, look them face to face and take them to task and share the truth with them and his perspective I think is what the American people deserve in a president.
So, that's a no. There's been no talks.
And it's certainly a stark contrast to what we had in the previous administration, a president who was hiding, who actually used this beautiful South Court Auditorium, which we're happy to be in today, but he used this like it was a fake Oval Office, weirdly, oddly. He was missing in action. He called lids at 2:00 in the afternoon.
What I have told you is that the President of El Salvador has made this quite clear. Kate?
For those who don't know, a lid is when we tell the press to go home for the night, and he was doing that midday. That is not acceptable around here. I will tell you we're working very early through the very late hours of the night. And the president is willing to talk to anyone, not just journalists who have really been posing as journalists but are actually left-wing activists.
Karoline, can you tell us more about the meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy over the weekend? Did that meeting change anything? Did Trump leave that meeting thinking any differently about negotiations and next steps on this?
But also, if you look at our adversaries and our competition abroad on a foreign policy scale, you know well in the first term, he went to North Korea. He talked to Putin directly. He talked to President Xi directly. The president believes in direct diplomacy, whether it is our adversaries and competitors around the world or left-wing activists like Jeffrey Goldberg.
Look, the president talked about this after the meeting himself yesterday when he took questions from reporters on Air Force One. He thinks that he is increasingly frustrated with leaders of both countries. He wants to see a permanent ceasefire. I understand Vladimir Putin this morning offered a temporary ceasefire.
First of all, thank you for having us today. It's a pleasure to be here. You mentioned obviously, it's no secret, America's been Israel's strongest friend, greatest ally. Unfortunately, as you know, Edan Alexander is still being held in Gaza. He's both an American and an Israeli citizen. Last we heard, allegedly Hamas has lost all communication with him.
The president has made it clear he wants to see a permanent ceasefire, first to stop the killing, stop the bloodshed. And while he remains optimistic he can strike a deal, he's also being realistic as well. And both leaders need to come to the table to negotiate their way out of this. And I do think that the president meeting with President Zelenskyy shows that he is exuding a lot of effort and time into this because he wants to be a peacemaker president, which he was in his first term.
I was wondering if there's been any update in terms of getting Edan home.
He intends to do that again. And this is an incredibly difficult situation and conflict that President Trump inherited from President Biden, who allowed this war to start in the first place. But he's focused on solving this problem. Does anyone have border questions?
Sure. First of all, the reports last week were from Hamas media, and so we always take that of course with a grain of salt. We do our own verification on those reports. I talked to the National Security Council about Edan Alexander last week as this is obviously a priority for the administration. And all I can tell you is that I can assure you that the special envoy Witkoff, Adam Boehler who's been leading some of our hostage negotiations, Mike Waltz, the entire national security team, finding him and bringing him home is a priority for this administration.
[Crosstalk]
And they continue to work very hard on that every day.
Sure. OK.
Thank you.
Thank you, Karoline. If border crossings are at a record low, why should it still be considered an emergency?
You're welcome. Chad.
It's because of what has happened in the last administration. We gotta ensure that not one ounce of fentanyl comes across the border to kill Americans. The president has declared the -- the cartels in Mexico a terrorist organization, along with MS-13, TDA. They killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined.
First of all, thank you for the hospitality, always open and welcoming. Thank you for the access. And I'll say to you again, for everyone, what I said to you a few weeks ago when we were here, I said it's so refreshing to have a press secretary, after the last few years, who's both intelligent and articulate.
It's an emergency. We shut it down. It's an emergency until the cartels are wiped off the face of this earth. President Trump's committed to saving every life. Now, I just mentioned got-aways, 38 yesterday. Who are the -- who are the gotaways. Where do they come from? We had over two million gotaways under Joe Biden's administration.
So, thank you for that. I think a lot of people would be curious to know if we have any details of what the private conversation between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the president was there at the Vatican. I imagine that we don't know at this stage of the game. But more specifically, back to the border issue, the DOJ stated on Friday that they were floating the idea of potentially subpoenaing journalists for -- to get access to whistleblowers.
Why did two million people pay more to get away? Under the Biden administration, you pay a cartel this amount of money to cross the border. Cartel's job ends at the border. To turn yourself into a green uniform, get released in 24 hours, get a free airline ticket to the city of your choice, get a free hotel room, get three meals a day, get free medical care, get work authorization in 90, 120 days, which is the real reason they came here.
We know the last administration did not treat whistleblowers very well. There are numerous ones who, although still employed by the FBI or the DHS, have not received back pay and haven't truly -- they've been employed, but they're not reinstated. So, I'm wondering does this administration have -- do they believe that we should reinstate the whistleblower, like agents Garrett or O'Boyle or Friend or you know Stevenson with DHS who blew the whistle on the child trafficking involving the cartels under Joe Biden?
Why did two million people pay more to get away? Because they didn't want to be vetted. They didn't want fingerprinted -- be fingerprinted. We arrested over 400 people on the terrorist watch list coming across the southern border in four years. How many of that two million came -- how many of that two million came from countries sponsoring terror?
He too is yet to be brought back. Do we have a position on that?
You think it's zero? Then you're ignorant. This is the biggest national security failure this country has ever seen. This is a border emergency until we end it, end all of it. We're making good strides. Right now it's still emergency until we shut it down.
Sure. Well, for each individual agency, secretaries of those agencies obviously have deference over who they hire, who they fire, who they promote. I can tell you certainly the president commends anyone who steps out and speaks the truth, especially against the malpractice that we saw over the last four years under the previous administration.
Go ahead.
I could speak to the two cases at the Treasury Department. The two whistleblowers there who blew the whistle on the Hunter Biden tax fraud case have been promoted by Secretary Bessett. So, certainly, we commend anyone who has the courage to step up and speak the truth. And as for those who unfortunately tried to leak, especially classified information, to the legacy media, to put our troops in harm's way, our law enforcement officials at harm's way, leaks like that will not be tolerated.
This is a question for Mr. Homan. Late last week there were three US citizen children who were removed with their mothers who were in the United States illegally. There have been -- a federal judge in Louisiana, who was appointed by President Trump, said that he was concerned that there was "no meaningful process." Are you concerned that due process, at least for the US citizen children, is being flouted and that the speed at which the enforcement is being done could lead to errors, as was the case in the Kilmer Abrego Garcia case?
But those who are seeking to protect the truth will certainly be commended and applauded for that. Sure, Rogan, go ahead. Good to see you again.
And then also, if you could give an update on the deportation numbers under this administration and whether you're pleased with them.
Hi, Karoline. Great to see you as well. Great job this morning and, as always, you're really crushing it. My question is about the Epstein files. And a couple of months ago, the DOJ released what they called phase one of the Epstein files. And they announced that a lot of those files -- the remaining files, probably the bulk of the files were actually in the New York field office.
First of all, I -- I don't accept the term error in Abrego Garcia. There was an oversight. There was -- there was a withholding order. But things have changed. The facts surrounding the withholding order has changed. He is now a terrorist, which is -- the withholding order's set aside. And the gang he was fearing from being removed to El Salvador no longer exists.
They requested that they be returned the day after. And some legacy media reports show that not only were those files returned to the DOJ but that hundreds of FBI agents are going through them day after day and getting them ready for public release. Do you have any updates from the DOJ or the FBI on when those files are expected to be released?
So, the facts around that case are totally different. I'll let the lawyers litigate that. But as far as the US three EOC kids, I'd said from day one, if you enter this country legally, it's a crime. If you remain in this country illegally and you ignore a judge's order about self -- about deporting, if you choose to have your citizen child knowing you're in this country legally, you put yourself in that position.
And also when we might start seeing some arrests of the client list?
You put your family in that position. What we did is remove children with their mothers who requested the children depart with them. This was a parental decision. Parental one -- parent -- parenting one on one. The mothers made that choice. And I tell you what. If we didn't do it, the story today would be Trump administration separating families again.
Sure, I can assure you that the attorney general and her team at the Department of Justice are working on this diligently. For a specific timeline, I'd have to check in with them and we can certainly do that for you, Rogen, in the effort of transparency. But I will tell you the Attorney General is a bulldog.
No, we're keeping families together. So, wen a parent says I want -- I want my two year old baby to go with me, we made that happen. They weren't deported. We don't deport US citizens. The parents made that decision, not the United States government. But -- but I don't hear any questions about Laken Riley had a mother.
She is someone you want on your team. And when she wants to get something done, she gets it done. I've seen her do it in various instances already in her time as attorney general. And when she makes a promise, she keeps it. So, I think I don't have a specific timeline for you on that, but I do know that they're working on it over there.
She's never -- she's never going to see her child. Again, Rachel Moran, she had five children. She -- you know, those children are never going to see their mom again. This administration's doing the right thing. Every public safety threat we arrest in this country and remove them, this country's much safer.
Thank you.
So, parents will make a decision what happens to their child. Having a US citizen child does not make you immune from our laws. If that's the message we send the entire world, enter the country legally, it's a crime, don't worry about it; get ordered removed by an immigration judge, don't worry about it, no one's looking for you; and have a US citizen child and you're immune from our laws, you're never going to fix the border.
Sure. Go ahead.
People will keep putting themselves in harm's way. More women would die. More children would die crossing this border. We got a secure border by enforcing laws. We're not making this up. We're enforcing laws under statute enacted by Congress, and it's the right thing to do.
Thank you for having us here. I've noticed -- this is kind of like a repeat of 2016 -- the legacy media has gone back to not reporting anything on President Trump. In the beginning, we had them reporting everything that he was doing. Now they're kind of going back again to not reporting everything that he is actually doing.
Can you give an update on the -- Karoline? Deportation numbers --
I'm kind of the nerd when it comes to reporting. I'm not the headline news girl; I'm the nuts and bolts. I'm the policy tech nerd. So, what direction do you advise kind of me to go into like the White House files that you all send out every single day? Because that's what people are used to when they want to ask me questions, they want to know kind of like the nuts and bolts of everything.
Sure.
Secondly, I know going into the first 100 days -- Johnson is meeting with President Trump today -- President Trump has issued a lot of executive orders. What about codifying? Is that going to be a conversation President Trump is going to have with him about possibly a timeline of just taking them from EOs into codifying them and to making them permanent, so we don't have another president that comes in, possibly a Democrat, that completely overturns everything that President Trump has done?
Under this administration?
Yes, as I spoke to Sean's question earlier, absolutely we want congress to get to work. First thing is the reconciliation package, like I said, border and tax cuts, that's on the president's mind. But of course, he wants to see congress move to codify all of the incredible things and work that he's done via executive order.
Go ahead.
To your first question about the nuts and bolts, I wish more people in the legacy media were like you and didn't focus on the sensationalist headlines but actually cared about the facts. The president is doing so many phenomenal things every day that will never be mentioned on cable news at night signing executive orders.
Mr. Homan --
We do our absolute best to message that, which is again why we're welcoming independent voices like yours with following on social media because that's the best way to get those truths and those facts out there. We put out fact sheets on the daily about what the president is signing, and they do get into the nuts and bolts of each and every policy and each and every executive action that he's taking.
What are -- what are you asking for? We just provided the numbers.
He's signing three phenomenal executive orders today. I will share a preview with you on those. One of them is an executive order focused on sanctuary cities. It will direct the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to provide a list of sanctuary cities back to the administration. We will review those. If those sanctuary cities are breaking federal law, well then the Office of Management and Budget is going to look at their federal spending.
An update on the number of deportations that have occurred under this administration, whether you're pleased with that.
Again, if you're defying federal law, you are threatening your own federal spending by doing that. There is another executive order the president will sign tonight, we can provide the fact sheet for you, on ensuring law and order and ensuring that federal law enforcement and local law enforcement can work together and communicate more easily.
Go ahead, Tom.
And then the third executive order, which actually speaks to the heart of your question earlier about the Uber drivers, will be an order directing the Department of Transportation to include English literacy tests for our truckers. This is a big problem in the trucking community that, unless you're in that community, you might not know.
Last number I got was 139,000 deportations. Am I happy with the number? Numbers are good, especially if you look at the ICE numbers. The ICE -- the ICE arrest and removals are far beyond Biden. What I read in the media, oh, ICE, the deportations are behind Biden administration. Well, why? Because they counted border removals.
But there's a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials as well, which obviously is a public safety risk. So, we're going to ensure that our truckers, who are the backbone of our economy, are all able to speak English. That's a very commonsense policy in the United States of America.
We don't have 10.5 million people crossing the border. We don't have border removals. So, Joe Biden could have deported 5 percent of his encounters, and the numbers will still be higher than us on the border removals because we have a secure border, the most secure border in the history of this nation. Compare apples to apples, ICE arrests and deportations are far more than Joe Biden.
So, the president will be signing that later this afternoon. Yeah, you're welcome. To the back in the yellow tie.
That's right.
Thank you, Karoline. President Trump has recently made statements about eliminating the federal income tax and creating the External Revenue Service. When could we see that start to play out?
Karoline? Karoline?
Well, I will tell you this is something the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of Treasury are both equally as excited about as is the president. And part of -- there's many reasons for the tariffs the president has implemented and the trade deals that he is currently negotiating. Number one, we need to shore up our critical supply chains here at home.
Sure. Go ahead.
Number two, we need to increase our revenue here in the United States. We are running trillions of dollars of deficits. Our country will cripple if we continue down this path. And so, how great it would be for the External Revenue to completely replace the Internal Revenue Service. So, I know the administration is focused on the external revenue service, getting that up and running.
Mr. Homan, talking about the border wall, can you give us an update as far as how many miles are being built today? And is Mexico paying for it, as the president said they were going to?
And as you know, Customs and Border Protection is charged with bringing in the money from tariffs every day and they are bringing in billions and billions of dollars per day with the current tariff rates and where they are at. So, we will continue with that effort. I think I went around the room -- oh, nope.
Well, first of all -- I'll answer that question because I already answered it in my opening remarks. To date, since January 1st, there's been more than 85 miles of new border wall construction in various stages of that construction and planning. The president has made it clear to Congress that we want to see more funding for not just border wall construction but also to support our ICE agents and our Border patrol agents who are on the ground facilitating with this mass deportation effort.
One more in the back.
So, it's clear that Mexico is not going to pay for it? Is that what you're saying?
All good. So, we know President Trump has been a champion for the 2A ever since he got into office, both times. My question is do we see anything -- are there any ongoing efforts for national reciprocity so we can carry in all 50 beautiful states?
Let's address that. Trump said Mexico gonna pay for the wall. They have in a roundabout way, have they not? Putting 10,000 military on their northern -- southern border, taking the action they did with remain in Mexico, they didn't have to do that. They're doing it. Putting military on the southern border have moved illegal immigration to a record low.
This is something the president talked about on the campaign trail for sure. We need congress to do it, but the president will always support our law-abiding gun owners and, as you mentioned, is an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment. It's more important now than ever as we see violent crime rates in our inner cities.
We're saving millions of dollars every day on detention, transportation, removal proceedings. We've more than made up for the cost of that wall because of the actions of Mexico. So -- so, is Mexico helping build that wall? Yeah, because we're saving so much money, millions of dollars a day, that we can afford to build that wall.
I've said this repeatedly over the past four years, the Second Amendment was never more important than when we had an illegal immigrant crime epidemic spiking in this country. Law abiding Americans have a constitutional right to defend themselves and the president absolutely supports that. But to national reciprocity, we do need congress's help on that one.
So, actually, yes, they're helping to build the wall.
So, thank you, guys. It's so good to see you. I could go around the room all day, but unfortunately there's work to be done. Thank you for coming to our very first influencer briefing to kick off the first 100 days of the Trump White House. It's great to see you all here and thanks for what you do.
John?
Thank you [Laughing].
Thanks a lot, Karoline. Mr. Homan, a question for you. You're the border czar. Can you give an estimate as to how many individuals are in the United States illegally? That's number one, and I'm sure you're very familiar with that number, an estimate. And the second question is, I have a list that the White House put out, of individuals, 100 ICE arrests since the beginning of the president's term.
Thank you. I'm going to walk off now.
And the people are arrested for various very serious crimes, first degree murder, convicted of rape, convicted of murder and aggravated burglary, sexual assault of a child. How many of the individuals that are in the United States illegally are people like this, really bad people?
Well, first of all, how many illegal aliens I think in the United States, at least 20 million. People said, where did you come up with that number? We've been speaking about 12 million for 20 years. We know we got 10.5 that we know of came to the border. How many don't we know of? I talked about known gotaways at two million.
How many unknown gotaways do we have, like between the Big Bend sector in Texas where there's no technology? A thousand people a day could cross through there. We wouldn't know. We will know now. So I would venture over 20 million. But your question is last count we got -- last I looked, there's about 700,000 illegal aliens with criminal charges walking the streets of this country, 700,000, and that's what we're looking for now.
That's where we're prioritizing, them and national security threats.
We'll go to the back row.
Thanks, Karoline.
Yes.
For Mr. Homan. I'm Taylor with Spectrum News. We have a station up in Rochester, New York. It was reported you're visiting there tomorrow. Can you talk a bit about the purpose of your trip? I know the Trump administration is suing the city over its sanctuary city policies, how the executive order Karoline alluded to ties into it, and what your message is for communities and community leaders who say we're able to establish our own rules here, we're worried about this input from the federal level?
Can you talk a bit about that?
Well, same thing I talked about earlier. I don't think any elected mayor, any elected governor should want public safety threats, those illegally in the United States, public safety threats, walking through the community. And what happened in Rochester, HSI agent called for emergency assistance. Officers of Rochester PD responded to a call from emergency assistance from a federal law enforcement officer.
They responded then they got disciplined. I don't think anybody can come up with one instance where an ICE agent or Border Patrol agent didn't respond to emergency call for assistance from any law enforcement agency. Cops need to help cops, especially in emergency situations, but they got disciplined. And I met those officers down in Nashville soon after that.
I think it was a couple of days after it, and I told them, I stand with them. They did the right thing, law enforcement responding to emergency assistance from law enforcement. So I'm going up there to support the men and women in law enforcement, the men and women who carry that badge and gun every day.
They're working the streets at 2:00 a.m. while we're all sleeping. I'm going to give my support and they just announced a lawsuit, and that's one of many. Sanctuary cities are going to be sued under this administration for flouting immigration law. I mean, the law is clear and they're violating it and this administration will take actions.
I'm going up there to show my support of men and women in law enforcement. I started as a cop in the community. I'm showing support for them because the community wants their police officers to be officers too. The communities don't want public safety threats walking around their communities either, and that's what it's all about and that's why I'm going.
Sure.
Thanks, Karoline. Mr. Homan, how close are you to housing migrants at US DOD facilities like Fort Bliss in Texas?
Well, we're already housing at Guantanamo. Fort bliss is being ramped up, so in the very near future. I don't have a timetable because things need to be done. Construction needs to be done. We're making sure the facilities are ready to accept and we're making sure facilities are able to care for the people that are going to be detained.
So I don't know the timeline right now. It changes every day because of various issues, but we're working on it.
Are you intending to hold families there, including families with American citizen children?
Family residential centers are for families. They're not jails. They're an open-air campus built for families, which means they have child psychologists, they have pediatricians. And why family residential centers, because we want to make sure that child is with a parent. Unlike the last administration who stopped DNA testing, who many investigations of children being smuggled in the country with someone that wasn't related to them, claiming to be a parent.
So we want to make sure children are with parents. We're going to make sure that's actually a family and that child ain't being trafficked. That's the main reason.
Question on that.
Go ahead.
Regarding the executive order on sanctuary cities, is the administration planning to pursue any more investigations or prosecutions like was done against the judge in Wisconsin against local officials?
Well, we'd have to defer you to the Department of Justice, obviously, for specific prosecutions or cases against individuals. But as I said in my remarks, the executive order the president will sign later this afternoon does direct the attorney general and also Kristi Noem our great secretary of Homeland Security, to provide a list of sanctuary cities in which local officials are not complying with this federal order and are not complying with federal immigration laws.
It's quite simple, obey the law, respect the law and don't obstruct federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats from our nation's communities. The American public don't want illegal alien criminals in their communities. They made that quite clear on November 5th, and this administration is determined to enforce our nation's immigration laws and we're happy to provide the text of that executive order.
And as I said, the president will be signing it later this afternoon. Sure.
Excuse me. I want to talk about farm workers. The president said earlier this month that there could be leniency for some undocumented farm workers. I'm wondering, where do things stand with that? And I'm also wondering, does that at all undermine his message on immigration, that it's OK for some undocumented people to be in the US but maybe not others?
Well, the president was referring to our H-1b and H-1b visa programs, and there have been no final decisions on that at all. But the president, I think what he was intended to speak about, what he was speaking about is ensuring that we have a clean legal immigration system that is being respected and obeyed.
And the mass amount of illegal immigration that we've seen over the past four years in our country, completely undermines our legal immigration system, those seeking citizenship, but also those coming here on a visa to legally and lawfully work. And the president wants to make sure that those programs are respected.
Reagan.
Thanks, Karoline. My question is for Tom. Tom, Regan Reese with the Daily Caller. Over the weekend, ICE arrested two illegal immigrants for allegedly stealing Secretary Noem's purse over the weekend. What can you tell us about these individuals' immigration history, as well as their criminal history?
I don't have the criminal history, but I know the one who stole the purse is supposedly in the country legally, but pick the wrong person to steal a purse from. I mean, Secretary Noem's a strong secretary. I know I've been talking about the success of the men and women of the Border Patrol and ICE, but under her strong leadership, she's a game changer.
So I'm happy to work with her. Despite the media I've read that me and Kristi Noem have differences, me and Kristi Noem are attached at the hip. There's no daylight between us. We're both going to push the president's agenda. She's a strong secretary and I'm glad she's in here and I'm glad -- but again, the illegal alien picked the wrong person to steal a purse from, I'm telling you.
Mary Margaret, go ahead.
Thank you, Karoline. I have two questions, one for Mr. Homan and one for you on the White House Correspondents Dinner. I'd like to start with you though, Tom Homan. This list has a very high number of sexual assaults on a child. Can you comment on that and why there are so many crimes against children committed by illegals in this country?
I don't know why. It's sick. It's the worst crime in the world when you sexually assault a child, I mean, the most innocent of us all. But that's why I made a statement that one time I was going to go to Boston, and bring hell with me. And the media went crazy at the time and said, Tom Homan said he's going to go to Boston and bring hell with him.
I was going to bring hell to illegal aliens who had raped children. There's not more of a heinous crime. And as you can see, the amount of child rapists we've arrested under this administration, that could have been arrested under Biden administration. They were out there. They had their final orders. They were out there, but they didn't go look for them.
They were too busy releasing millions of illegal aliens in this country and the numbers prove it. Their removal numbers of criminals was the lowest -- ICE had the lowest number of removals in the history of ICE under Joe. At the same time, you had historic illegal immigration on the border, ICE had the lowest Loss numbers in the history of the agency.
That shows the difference between two administration. We're looking for every one of them. People want to know, OK, am I going to retire for the third time? I'll retire when every public safety threat, national security threat, child rape is eradicated from this country. That's when I'll rest.
Thank you so much. And then, Karoline, really quick. Alex Thompson said at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and I'm going to read his quote, President Biden's decline and its cover up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House regardless of the party is capable of deception. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story and some people trust us less because of it. Can you comment on those remarks and whether you agree with that assessment?
I do agree with that assessment from Alex Thompson, who I understand won an award for writing a story, months and perhaps years, after the American people already knew that story to be true. Millions of Americans watched our mentally incompetent president struggle with his day-to-day duties of this office.
We watched our country be ran into the ground as a result and nobody in the media wanted to write about that, talk about it. There were many -- many reporters, I will say, right-leaning reporters, who did talk about that who didn't get awards, didn't get coverage. In fact, they were lambasted for their coverage.
And I remember being on President Trump's campaign talking about Joe Biden's clear mental incompetence and being accused by people in this room of manufacturing deepfake videos trying to persuade the public into not believing what they saw with their own eyes for many years. And I think it's about time the legacy media finally admits that was one of the greatest cover ups and scandals that ever took place in American history.
And certainly, it did contribute to the decline in the trust that Americans have for the legacy media here, which, by the way, is why we've made many changes to this briefing room in this White House. It's long overdue. Peter, go ahead.
Thank you; a few things. You guys arrested a Milwaukee County circuit judge for allegedly helping illegal immigrants get away. As you guys look at other judges, would you ever arrest somebody higher up on the judicial food chain, like a federal judge or even a Supreme Court justice?
Well, that's a hypothetical question. Again, I'd defer you to the Department of Justice for individuals that they are looking at or individual cases. But let's be clear about what this judge did. She obstructed federal law enforcement who were looking for an illegal alien in her courthouse. She showed that illegal alien the door to evade law enforcement officials.
That is a clear cut case of obstruction. You don't have to be a lawyer to understand that. And so, anyone who is breaking the law or obstructing federal law enforcement officials from doing their jobs is putting themselves at risk of being prosecuted, absolutely.
You guys have at least 18 written trade proposals. We still don't know who they are from or what they contain. What is the holdup with that?
There's no holdup. We're working around the clock. The trade team is working all day. I was on the phone late last night with Secretary Lutnick. I was on the phone this weekend as well with Secretary Bessent. I mean, the entire team is working 24/7 to get these trade deals done. And I think you'll be hearing more about them this week.
I don't want to get ahead of the trade team or the president in announcing potential deals, but certainly I can assure the American public that this administration is full speed ahead in -- in cutting good and fair trade deals on behalf of the American worker.
And one more. After the president's Truth Social post, the Browns finally took Shedeur Sanders. Does the president think he deserves credit for Sanders getting picked? And does he think going to the Browns is better than being undrafted?
Hey, I'm -- [Laughter] all -- all I will say is the president put out a statement and a few rounds later he was drafted. So, I think the facts speak for themselves on that one, Peter. We'll go to the back row in the middle to the blond. Yes.
Thank you, Karoline.
Hello.
President Trump has said that Secretary Hegseth will get it together. Does he think that Hegseth doesn't have it together right now?
Look, the president has made his position on Secretary Hegseth quite clear. He absolutely has confidence in the secretary's ability -- ability to lead the Pentagon. It's why he nominated him for this position. It's why the Senate voted to confirm him in this position. And look at the success that DOD has had thus far, their successful operation against the Houthi terrorists in the Middle East.
You look at -- the recruitment and retention levels for all branches of our armed forces are on the incline, which is exactly what this president intended to do. Secretary Hegseth has completely wiped out DEI from the Pentagon as well. And so, he's going to remain focused on standing up for our warfighters, on implementing President Trump's peace through strength foreign policy agenda abroad, and the president supports him in his role.
Sure.
Many are wondering how these 10 or 20 million people are working. Is there some efforts to clamp down on employment? Because they're -- they're working somewhere to keep staying here.
Go ahead, Tom.
The number of worksite enforcement actions have tripled this year, and it's going to triple again. Because in sanctuary jurisdictions especially, if we can't arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a county jail and they're going to release them into the community, that means we go into the community.
If we can't arrest them in the community, we'll arrest them at their worksite. We gotta do what we gotta do to arrest public safety threats. Like, there's no sanctuary for public safety threats in this country. So, worksite enforcement's going to increase even more than it already has. And another reason for worksite, the last administration stopped worksites.
Where's the -- where's the number one place we find -- we find victims of trafficking, victims of late -- forced labor trafficking? In worksites. So, not only are we going to enforce the law on worksites, we're going to save victims of trafficking. That's another reason we've increased worksite enforcement.
Awesome. Well, go ahead, Brian. Sure. We'll take one more question.
This is for Mr. Homan. We all walk by these heinous yard signs that are along Pebble Beach. What is some of the feedback that your ICE agents are getting in the field from the community as they remove these individuals from their families, their neighborhoods, their schools, or all the places in their community?
What's been the reaction that your ICE agents have gotten from the people who live amongst these individuals?
The morale of ICE and Border Patrol is at an all-time high because they're getting to uphold the oath they took and they're enforcing the law. Border Patrol under the Biden administration, I met with hundreds of them. They felt like Uber drivers and tourist agents. These men and women joined the ranks of ICE and Border Patrol to enforce the law, make the community safer and protect national security.
I hear it all the time. There's a lot of people in this country don't like me. I don't care. But I'm -- walk through an airport, I have many people walking up to me and thank me for my -- what I'm doing. And I'm not taking credit for anything. The success of the border and immigration enforcement is President Trump and the men and women wearing that uniform.
God bless each and every one of them. But I take a -- a pleasure in saying it because, in 40 years of doing this job, people always want to say why are you so emotional and -- when you testify, why are you so emotional on the network? Because if they wore my shoes for 40 years, they'd understand why emotional.
I've talked to little girls as young as nine years old that are raped multiple times by the cartel members. And when you get to your knees and you talk that little girl and everything innocent and pure has been ripped from her, when you listen to the -- Laken Riley, 17 minutes of that young lady fighting for her life, don't -- don't just think, OK, a young woman died.
Think of how she died, the terror that she went through, and these children that are sexually assaulted. I stood in the back of a tractor trailer and 19 dead people at my feet that baked to death. Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. And so, every sick person we take off the streets, especially child rapists, that makes this country much safer.
Every illegal alien we arrest, public safety threat one at a time, makes this country safer. But I got one thing I need to say real quick before I leave.
Take your notes from you, Tom.
Take my notes from me. I'm going to read it. I don't want any -- a misinterpretation of what I'm reading to you. The registration requirements under 8 USC 1302, if you're an illegal alien in the United States, this message is for you. You cannot hide from ICE. We're actively looking for you. Federal law requires every alien in the United States who has been present in the United States more than 30 days needs to register.
For those 14 years or older, you need to be fingerprinted with Department of Homeland Security. Federal law requires every alien in the United States to tell DHS in writing if you have a change of address within ten days of changing that address. Failing to register with DHS and failure to tell DHS about your new address are criminal offenses and they're going to be treated as such starting today.
Make no mistake. If you're in the country illegally and you fail to do what the law requires, we will prosecute you, you will go to jail, then we'll deport you. Second of all, penalties for failure to depart, 8 USC 1253, if you're an alien inside the United States who has a final order, this message is for you.
If you have a final order, the Trump administration is committed to enforcing our immigration laws, especially for those aliens who have received final orders of deportation. There are currently around 1.4 million illegal aliens who have been ordered removed but remain here in violation of the law. We will aggressively prosecute consistent with longstanding law those aliens for failing or refusing to depart or who takes other related actions aimed at hindering their removal.
You cannot open the door, you cannot answer our questions, you cannot open your car door, you considered to evade law enforcement. If you fail to leave the United States after receiving a removal order, we can and will issue monetary fines up to $998 a day. Evading your arrest knowing you have a final order of removal is a criminal offense.
We will prosecute. Then we'll -- then we'll deport you. Get your affairs in order. If you're in the country illegally, work with ICE, go to CBP One Home app, and leave on your own. Because if we have to find you, deport you and prosecute you, you'll have a bar placed on you and you won't come back to this country.
You won't be able to come back on a visitor's visa, a tourist visa, if you have -- your citizen child can't petition for you. If you're in this country illegally, get your affairs in order and work with us and get yourself removed from this country. That's what law requires, and we're going to enforce that law.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Tom. You can get back to work. Now, look, he's already leaving. [Laughter] He's got a lot to do, a lot of illegal immigrants to deport. But thanks, everyone, for joining us bright and early this morning. As I said at the top, we will do this again tomorrow to talk about the economy, which is another promise made and kept by the president.
And I'll be joined by the Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent, 8:30 tomorrow morning. Today, the president is welcoming the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles. If we have any Philly fans, that will be at 4:00. And then the president will sign those executive orders I spoke of and a few others at 5 p.m. So we'll see you all later.
Have a great day.