Couple questions, Mr. Homan?
You got time. You got time. Please?
Yeah?
Over the weekend, President Trump was talking about US troops potentially needing to fight back against drug cartels in Mexico. How serious of an idea is that?
Well, there's a reason the president designated them terrorist organizations, right? The drug cartels have killed more Americans than recognized terrorist organization before then, right? I mean, they killed more Americans than ISIS or any other terrorist groups. I mean, they've killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
So they're a terrorist organization and we need to treat them like terrorist organizations.
[Inaudible] Alcatraz reopened. President talking about --
Well, we need detention beds. And we do contracts a lot of states, a lot of local municipalities, so that's -- I think that's certainly an option, especially for the significant public safety threats, national security threats. I mean, should be on the table.
Is the administration looking at countries beyond El Salvador for mass deportation? CBS News has some reporting that there's talks underway with leaders in Africa and elsewhere.
There's talks underway with other countries that are willing to take illegal aliens, that their own countries won't take them. So we'll find a third safe country to take them. So yeah, there's talks underway.
OK. Do you have any cost estimates on reopening of Alcatraz?
I just answered that. I mean, it should be on the table because we need detention beds and that'd be -- I think that's an appropriate place for the significant public safety threats, national security threats. Why not? I mean, what's the difference on that and --
But do you have any idea how expensive it would be?
I have no idea.
How many countries are you in talks about potentially --
No comment.
What sort of impact do you see in having the self-deportation, offering $1,000 now for [Inaudible] illegal aliens to self-report through the app?
Well, I think we'll have -- you'll have some movement, right, because I think people are finally getting the message. If you leave on your own, you can take advantage of legal programs to come back. But if we have to go through the process of formally deporting you, there are mandatory barriers against you for up to 20 years, sometimes forever.
So if you want to take advantage, come back as a worker, a tourist visa, a visitor's visa, a student visa or have a US citizen child -- if you have one, petition for you in the future, leave yourself open to the opportunity of legal entry, do things the right way. There's millions of people standing in line right now, doing things the right way, taking the test, doing the background investigations, paying their fees.
They're sitting in the back seat, while millions of people are allowed in this country under Biden administration that simply don't qualify for asylum. Most of them will lose that asylum claim. So while they're clogging up the whole system, in addition to those who want to come in legally, while the millions of fraudulent asylum claims under Biden administration, there are people in this world who really are escaping fear and persecution from their homeland, but they're sitting in the back seat too because millions of people cheated the system, coming across the border and releasing in the United States that caused a significant backlog in immigration court.
And that wasn't by accident, it's by design. Let's just overwhelm the system, so it takes five, seven, nine years to go through the whole process. If they take advantage of the appeals process, they know exactly what they're doing. That's why they weren't in ICE detention because in ICE detention, they get a hearing within 35 days.
But we're releasing millions in the country, overwhelm the system, so they don't get a hearing in five, seven, nine years, then maybe there's a Democrat administration in power. Now we can have an amnesty. They knew exactly what they were doing. They're playing the long game, but we're going to beat them at it. We're going to ramp up interior enforcement operations and removals.
We're going to enforce the law. We're not going to ignore the law like the prior administration did.
The president says he doesn't know what his responsibilities are under article five of the Constitution. Who would it be who would educate him about that? Would it be you?
I think the president is one of the, if not the most, knowledgeable president that we've ever had. Look, people can beat on President Trump all you want. President Trump is a game-changer. I worked for six presidents starting with Ronald Reagan. I'm a border guy. Even President Clinton and Obama took steps to secure the border because they understood you can't have national security if you don't have border security.
No one did more than President Trump during his first administration. We handed the Biden administration the most secure border in my lifetime and he purposely unsecured it, first president in history of the nation to do that. Look at what President Trump achieved in eight weeks. He did in eight weeks what Joe Biden couldn't, wouldn't do in four years.
We have the most secure border in the history of this nation right now because of President Trump, greatest president in my lifetime. You can quote me on that.
Thank you, Mr. Homan. Thank you. Thank you.