The White House on Monday disputed reports that President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE had called for those who enter the country illegally to lose their due process rights.

“Just because you don’t see a judge doesn’t mean you don’t receive due process,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during Monday’s press briefing.

Her remarks came in response to criticism of a tweet from Trump in which he said people who illegally cross the border should be removed “with no Judges or Court Cases.

“The president would like to see us stop people from illegally entering the country at all,” Sanders said. “The president would like us to secure the borders and have a very legal and easy immigration process so people can come here the right way.”

ADVERTISEMENT

NEW: On Pres. Trump's tweets about removing undocumented immigrants without interaction with U.S. court system, Press Sec. Sanders tells @jonkarl: "Just because you don't see a judge doesn't mean you aren't receiving due process." https://t.co/zLRwyCR9G1 pic.twitter.com/mki1eWiGTY — ABC News (@ABC) June 25, 2018

In addition to suggesting illegal immigrants be denied access to a court, the president has ridiculed efforts to hire additional immigration judges to adjudicate asylum claims and immigration cases.

His recent comments drew criticism from immigration advocates and lawmakers who argue that his tweets were alluding to unconstitutional practices.

Sanders said Congress will have to enact immigration reform for any meaningful change to occur.

“The president’s laid out what he’d like to see,” Sanders said on Monday. “We put out the things we’d like to see in an immigration package months ago. We’re still waiting on Congress to give us the ability to do that."

“So unless Congress acts nothing is actually going to change,” she added.

The comments were reminiscent of last week when Sanders and other Trump administration officials said that only Congress could end the practice of separating migrant families at the border. The president later signed an executive order halting the practice.

Trump last week also threw cold water on congressional efforts to pass immigration reform, saying that House Republicans are “wasting their time” by trying to pass a more moderate bill that includes some of the president’s priorities.

Sanders said Monday that the president was expressing skepticism, citing the unlikelihood of passage in the Senate.

"Democrats in the Senate have made clear they’re not going to support this, and because we need at least some Democrats to get on board," she said. "Until they change their mind, we’re going to continue looking at the best ways we can fix these problems."