A top White House adviser said Sunday the Trump administration is weighing a number of alternatives to revive the president’s travel ban from seven predominately Muslim countries.
“We’re considering and pursuing all options. Those options include seeking an emergency stay at the Supreme Court, continuing the appeal with the panel, having an emergency hearing en banc, or going to the trial court at the district level and trial on the merit,” Stephen Miller said on “Fox News Sunday,” using the legal term for a hearing before the entire federal appeals panel that decided not to reinstate the immigration ban last week.
But Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said there’s one more option – toss it in the garbage.
“I think he ought to throw it in the trash,” the New York democrat said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I think this executive order is so bad and so poisoned and its genesis is so bad and terrible that he ought to just throw it in the trash can.”
He went on to call the order “un-American and unconstitutional.”
“A religious ban just goes against the American brain. We believe in immigrants in this country and we don’t believe in a religious test,” he said.
But Miller reiterated the White House’s belief that Trump has the constitutional authority to “also engage in conducting border control and immigration into this country,” he said.
“We do not have judicial supremacy in this country,” Miller said on “Fox News Sunday.” “We have three co-equal branches of government.”
Miller also said the controversy over banning refugees from the seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen – is based in ideology rather than law.
“There is no constitutional right for a citizen in a foreign country who has no status in America to demand entry into our country,” Miller said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “Such a right cannot exist, such a right will never exist.”
He also defended the nationwide roundup of undocumented immigrants over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We are going to follow the laws of the United States, and in following those laws, we will prioritize the removal of people who have criminal records in this country,” Miller said on ABC.