CECILIA VEGA: On immigration, on the DHS memo. Two parts, okay? Is one of the goals here mass deportation?
SPICER: No.
VEGA: Not at all?
SPICER: This isn’t — look — I think what we have to get back to is understanding a couple things. There’s the a law in place that says if you're in this country illegally, that we have an obligation to make sure that the people that are in our country are here legally. What the order sets out today is ensures that the million or so people that have been adjudicated already, that there’s a — that ICE prioritizes, creates a system of prioritization and makes sure that we walk through that system in a way that protects this country. This is consistent with everything the President has talked about, which is prioritizing the people who are here who represent a threat to public safety or have a criminal record. And all this does is lay out the exact procedures to make sure that that subgroup of people who pose a threat to our nation because of a conviction or violation of public safety or have a criminal record are adjudicated first and foremost. That's it, plain and simple.
VEGA: So, is then — a follow-up to that — is the White House's message, to date, to undocumented people in this country whose only crime is being here illegally, don't worry?
SPICER: No. The message — the message from this White House and from his DHS is that those people who are in this country and pose a threat to our public safety or have committed a crime will be the first to go and we will be aggressively making sure that that occurs. That is what the priority is.
VEGA: What about the others who aren't? They’re watching this very fearful right now.
SPICER: Look, Cecilia, the President has said multiple times that we've got to look at this issue on a very, very case — you know, holistic way. Number one priority when you look the a the scope of how many people are in the country illegally, the number one priority is making sure that people who pose a threat to this country are immediately dealt with and this is not a small group of people. We are talking close to 1 million people who have already been adjudicated and had their status processed through a formal, due process, you know, system. And so what we need to do now is to make sure that we focus the resources and efforts on those people going first and foremost. And the fact sheet and the information that we put out lays that out very, very clearly, you know, what happened is being done. But for so long, the people at ICE and CBP had their hands cuffed behind them and when they were going to deal with the mission of their job. The last administration had so many carve-outs for who could be and couldn't be adjudicated it made it very difficult for customs and enforcement people to enforce the laws of this country. But right now, what we've done is to make sure that they have the ability and guidance and resources to do what their mission is and that's it, plain and simple and the President is consistent with his priority of making sure that those people who pose a threat to this country are the first ones to go.
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2:17:20 p.m.
APRIL RYAN: What did the President gain from his tour today? You talked about where he visited, the exhibits that he visited. Did he also visit slavery? And the reason why I'm asking this is because when he was candidate Trump, he said things like, you know, we made this country, meaning white America, not necessarily black. Did he gain anything —
SPICER: I don't know why you would say that. What do you mean?
RYAN: No, no, no. He said that. I heard him say that.
SPICER: But look, the answer to your question is — right — one of the first exhibits he visited was one of slavery exhibits and the director walked him through some very amazing stories and statistics about where slavery was prevalent not just in traditional southern colonies but through the country. So, they did have a very robust discussion about slavery early on in the tour and I think that it was a very eye opening and powerful tour for him.