-- Friday. Hi.
Hello.
Mr. Miller, how are you?
I'm great. Thanks -- I have a --
Jordan Conradson.
I have a conference call that I need to run to, but since you all are graciously gathered here, I'll take a few questions. And I think you also just have like an hour with Karoline. So, I don't want to step on that too much either.
Mr. Miller --
Hold on, there's a question back there first.
I have two quick questions. First, you know, President Trump has talked about potentially suspending habeas corpus to take care of the illegal immigration problem. When could we see that happen do you think?
Well, the Constitution is clear and that of course is the supreme law of the land that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So, it's an option we're actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not. At the end of the day, Congress passed a body of law known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, which stripped Article III courts, that's the judicial branch of the jurisdiction over immigration cases.
So, Congress actually passed, it's called Jurisdiction Stripping Legislation. It passed a number of laws that say that the Article III courts aren't even allowed to be involved in immigration cases. Many of you probably don't know this. I'll give you a good example. Are you familiar with the term temporary protected status, or TPS, right?
So, by statute, the courts are stripped of jurisdiction from overruling a presidential determination or a secretarial determination on TPS when the Secretary of Homeland Security makes that determination. So, when Secretary Noem terminated TPS for the illegals that Biden flew into the country, when courts stepped in, they were violating explicit language that Congress had enacted saying they have no jurisdiction.
So, it's not just the courts aren't just at war with the executive branch, the courts are at war, these radical rogue judges, with the legislative branch as well too. So, all of that will inform the choice that the president ultimately makes, yes.
Mr. Miller, to further incentivize deportation of illegal aliens, is the administration considering going after businesses that knowingly employ illegal aliens?
Well, they already have. Worksite enforcement -- I don't have the exact statistics, but it's at multiple hundreds of percent. So, the increase in worksite enforcement has been dramatic, it's been immediate and that will continue.
Why is President Trump moving to dismiss three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission?
Well, I think Karoline answered this question in the briefing today, the president is the head of the executive branch and it's the president's prerogative to ensure that all executive branch employees are the best, the brightest, the most committed to fulfilling the agenda that they have, whether it be in their agency or any post in government.
Is the president going to replace them?
Well, again, we'll take a look at the situation, but the important thing is -- or I will take a look, sorry, I will take a look at the specifics that you're talking about here but the important thing to understand is that we don't just let people stay in their jobs just because they were always there, right?
We have to examine the performance of specific employees, whether they're doing the best that they can do. I know that in particular, as a parent, there's been lots of concerns that I've had, that my family's had about product safety in this country. We can absolutely do better and we will do better, but that requires hiring the best people for the job.
And President Trump will always hire the best people for the job. Yes?
When we talk to the president's voters, they bring up a couple issues. One, it's been three months and they still haven't gotten down to the 2020 election. The, um, they're concerned about the, you know, the whole voting situation and they also want to know about what happened to the, uh, the assassination attempt and --
All -- those are all great questions. So -- so --
Well, they're really concerned.
Those are all great questions. The Department of Justice of course is working in all three of the things that you just mentioned and hopefully we'll have a further update soon. I can tell you on election integrity that the president recently signed an executive order that was the most comprehensive election integrity order that was ever issued.
And as you may recall, that included a requirement to verify citizenship to vote. Another example where a district court judge lawlessly intervened, enjoined that requirement -- Now think about this, Congress passed a law, again Congress passed a law, making it a crime, a felony, for non-citizens to vote.
And yet a judge has enjoined the executive branch from enforcing and upholding that statutory requirement. So, the courts, the radical rogue judges, they don't care what Congress said, they don't care about what the Constitution says. They're just imposing their own Marxist agenda on the whole country and that's obviously --
-- they want a follow up on January 6th.
Yeah, so, I mean the -- again, the Department of Justice is investigating all of the issues that you mentioned. I wish I had a full update for you now, but I can assure you that our attorney general, our deputy attorney general, our FBI director, now Ed Martin at the Weaponization Working Group will all be -- and of course we put up a new DC attorney, will all be diligently working on ensuring accountability and justice.
Yes, back there.
Question, Tom Homan used some colorful language earlier this year to describe how he would be demanding accountability from, uh, New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, who didn't cooperate with ICE. Is Eric Adams holding up his end of the bargain thus far?
All I would say to that is, this administration is going to pursue immigration enforcement and cooperation in every city. And anyone who doesn't comply with the laws and dictates of this country, will face the appropriate legal consequences. That applies to Eric Adams, and that applies to every other mayor in this country.
The law is the law is the law, and if obstruction, if hindering, if harboring occurs, then the full range of potential penalties applies to any federal official, sorry, any state official or local official, that's engaging in obstructionist behavior. But I would also say that when it comes to immigration enforcement, now that we have achieved the mission of sealing the border, you're going to see more and more resources and priorities put into the mass deportation program.
And so, on a day to day basis, you're going to see exponentially larger numbers of illegal aliens being arrested and removed from the interior. Yes?
So, can you share with us where the illegal immigrants that will be deported to Angola, Rwanda, those African nations are, which condition they are and when are you guys planning to send them back to Africa?
Well, we get illegal aliens, or we did get illegal aliens, during the Biden Administration from 150 countries. So, ICE sends planes to every country in the world. We send planes to Iraq, we send planes to Yemen, we send planes to Haiti, we send planes to Angola. I mean, ICE is sending planes all over the world, all the time.
Anyone who came here illegally, we're finding them and we're getting them out. Uh, any other questions? Yes, back there. Yes?
Thank you, Stephen. So, looks like we're going to see a lot of port workers and truck drivers displaced by the tariffs in the coming weeks. And does the administration have any plan for relief for those workers, sort of like what you did in the first term for the agricultural workers who had some impact?
Well, what I would focus on is the fact that we're actually going to begin enacting, as you've seen, a series of historic trade deals. They're going to be opening up the export market for American producers, both manufacturers, growers, ranchers as never before. And so, what's going to begin happening now, because of the president's leadership on tariffs, is markets that have historically been closed.
So, obviously India, Japan, South Korea, the UK are now going to be open to American exports and American production. I would also just note that if you look at the statistics, about 90,000 factories in the United States closed since NAFTA was signed, which is an almost unimaginable figure. The media never cared about those workers and their factories that were destroyed.
And we can all visit the towns now and we know of course the heartbreaking stories, the fentanyl addiction, the breakup of traditional families, the disintegration of whole communities, that was the catastrophe that occurred that President Trump is reversing by finally standing up for the American worker.
Yes?
Um, with regards to the refugees that are being brought back from South Africa
That's a really exciting news story, isn't it?
The rationale behind it when refugees -- but nothing came back from other countries. Why is the US making history -- South Africa?
Well, because what's happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created. This is persecution based on a protected characteristic, in this case race. So, this is race-based persecution. The refugee program is not intended as a solution for global poverty. And historically, it has been used that way.
Wherever there's global poverty or wherever there's dysfunctional governments, then the US refugee program comes in, swoops people up, relocates them to America and you have multi-generational problems that the -- even into the second and third generation, you have endemic poverty, you have crime issues, you have integration issues.
The US refugee program in America has been a catastrophic failure. I mean, if you look for example at the Twin Cities area, I mean just in terms of markers of, um, educational outcomes, in terms of public safety, in terms of welfare use, I mean it's been a complete public policy failure. And so, this is an example of the president returning the refugee program to what it was intended to be used as.
[Crosstalk]
Hold on. Over there. Thanks.
What specific evidence do you have that --
So, let me just take this one first. Thanks.
Is the president having a conversation with you about becoming the national security adviser, and would you accept?
I'm very thrilled with the job that I currently have and my focus right now is on supporting Secretary Rubio. Marco and I become very close friends, um, especially over the last 100 days, but even before then. And I could not be more excited to work with Marco who is truly one of the all-stars of this government, both in his role as Secretary of State and in his role as National Security Advisor, and I think the whole country is going to continue to see just how incredible Marco is.
[Crosstalk]
Yes? Yes?
What specific evidence the United States have that those South Africans have been severely persecuted --
Well, it's -- it's state policy. There's land expropriation, there's a whole series of government laws and policies that specifically target white farmers and the white population in South Africa. That's well documented on video. And, of course, you even see government leaders chanting racial epithets and espousing racial violence.
That's all very well documented.
On Ukraine, are you in a position to confirm either kill or keep alive the reports that you have been asking Ukraine, war-torn country, to accept illegal immigrants and why?
I've never heard that before. Yes? Hold on, yes? Yes?
There are over 300,000 -- president foreshadowed that he was going to be making a very big announcement yesterday, today, maybe Monday. I know you may -- you know, you're not going to get ahead of the president. Can you give us a hint on what topic -- what --
No, I'm not going to get ahead of the president. Yes, did you have a question?
Yes, will you be involved with the meetings with Mayor Adams today, and what do you plan to discuss?
Um, I'm not involved in those meetings, no. Do you have a question?
Yes, so, the current governor of California has been extremely rude to President Trump and his administration. What is the status of their litigation on the tariff issues and all the issues?
I don't have an update on that, sorry. Yes, yes?
Do you have, um -- of the South African refugees, how many are coming and when will they arrive?
Well, we just have the -- the first flight is scheduled, I believe, for early next week.
OK.
But that's just --
-- in the US are they --
Well, I don't have a -- I don't have an exact update for you on that yet. I don't want to confirm any news reports, but the, uh -- but that's just the beginning of what's going to be a much larger scale relocation effort. And so, those numbers are going to increase obviously as time goes on. It takes a little while to set up the systems and processes and procedures to begin a new refugee flow.
But we expect that the pace will increase, um -- it will increase at a healthy pace as time goes on. Yes, back there?
-- there on the first flight?
Uh, not right now. Yeah, back there.
-- university student [Inaudible] protest, the federal judge has ordered the immediate release of university students held by immigration authorities. -- reaction?
Yeah, my reaction is, again, there's a judicial coup in this country. The foreigners in this country do not have a right to stay in this country if they support designated terrorist organizations like Hamas. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization. The Secretary of State has the absolute authority under statute, which again is not judicially reviewable, to revoke an immigration benefit or visa and then to pursue a deportation with the Department of Homeland Security.
We cannot individually litigate in court every single visa that we want to revoke. This is a plenary authority of the executive branch. And I would just say that look at a -- where it really comes down to is this, the American people voted for President Trump in large part to seal the border, deport the illegals, fix our immigration system so, it serves America's interests, and remove the people from this country that we don't want here because they threaten our national security, our public safety or our economic security.
That is what he was elected to do. It's what's the -- it's what the Constitution empowers him to do. And this judicial coup by a handful of Marxist judges to frustrate that effort can only be understood as an attack on democracy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller -- Thank you. -- in the news for a large payout for --