The former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said Donald Trump’s idea to eliminate immigration judges was one of the worst ideas he had ever heard.
John Sandweg, who served ICE during the Obama administration, said during an appearance on CNN that Mr Trump’s idea was “the single dumbest idea I have ever heard in terms of dealing with this current crisis”.
Instead Mr Sandweg said the US should be hiring more judges to handle the backlog of immigration cases that have overburdened the American immigration system.
“What we need to do is the exact opposite of what the president is saying,” Mr Sanweg said. “Flood the zone with the rule of law, surge the number of immigration judges and process these cases quickly.”
Mr Trump appeared to float the idea on Friday during a press conference, where he also claimed that the United States is “full”, and could not accept any more immigrants.
“We should get rid of judges,” Mr Trump said. “You can’t have a court case every time somebody steps their foot on our ground.”
The president was visiting California on Friday to see a portion of border wall that had been renovated since he became president.
Since that trip, reports have emerged indicating Mr Trump personally instructed Border Patrol agents to illegally block immigrants from entering the United States.
When they sought further instruction from superiors, the agents were reportedly told to ignore the president and instead follow the rule of the law.
