At the conclusion of his Friday afternoon announcement about 5G wireless technology, ABC's Jon Karl asked President Trump to clarify his tweets about reports that the White House sought to release detained illegal immigrants only in sanctuary cities.





....The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019





Trump said the Border Patrol is apprehending thousands of people every day and because of current law they are only allowed to be held in custody for 20 days before being released into the U.S.



"But we could fix that so fast if the Democrats would agree," Trump said. "But if they don't agree, we might as well do what they always say they want. We will bring the illegals... to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it, whether it is a state or whatever it might be."



"California is certainly always saying they want more people, and if they want more people in their sanctuary cities, we will give them more people," Trump quipped. "We can give them an unlimited supply. And let's see if they are so happy."



"They always say they have open arms. Let's see if they have open arms."





JONATHAN KARL ABC NEWS: Mr. President, tell us your plan about sanctuary cities and illegal migrants that you tweeted about.



PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: People that are putting sanctuary cities where they are not even wanted, because as you know, in California and other places, a lot of people want to get out of sanctuary cities, they don't want them, but they always seem to have open arms, so we thought rather than moving the illegal immigrants to other parts of the country -- first of all, we are getting them and we are doing the best we can with very bad laws. We have to change the laws. But we are apprehending thousands and thousands of people a day, and the law only allows us to hold them for 20 days. Because of the most ridiculous laws probably we have in this country.



If [FCC Commissioner] Ajit [Pai] have laws like that for 5G, you would never have the first cell put up. But we have horrible, old-fashioned laws that are put in by the Democrats, who were willing to change it -- I used to say 45 minutes. We could do it in 15 minutes. Whether it is catch and release, or chain migration, or any of them, the asylum laws are absolutely insane.



They come up. In many cases, they are rough gang members. In many cases, they are people with crime records. And they are given a statement to read by lawyers standing there waiting. It says, "I have great fear for my life. I have great fear for being in my country." Even though in some cases, some of these people are holding their country's flags and waving their country's flags, then they talk about the fear they have of being in the country, that the flag they were waving freely, so we are looking at the possibility, strongly looking at, to be honest with you -- California, the governor wants to have a lot of people coming in, refugees coming in, a lot of sanctuary cities, so we will give them to the sanctuary cities, maybe, to take care of, if that is the way we want it, because we can only hold them for 20 days.



So we apprehend them by thousands of day. Border patrol has been incredible. The job they are doing is incredible. The wall is going up. It is going up fairly rapidly. We start another big section tomorrow. We are building miles and miles of wall. I think we will be close to 400 miles built by the end of next year. We need that. I just got back from Texas and some of the ranchers tell me in you have bodies lying all over the land, of people, where the coyotes give them a can of soda, and they give them a sandwich, and they say Houston is 300 miles in that direction.



The people don't know what that means. That means they can't make it. That means they have no chance and they die. It is something I never heard. I never heard it to this extent. Many people died. They will say, just head in that direction. We are doing a lot about it. If we had the wall, we wouldn't have that. If we had the wall, people wouldn't be coming up.



Mexico is now apprehending and bringing back to the various countries that we talk about, Honduras, Guatemala, they are bringing people back to those countries, Colombia too to a certain extent, and they are going back to those countries.



But we could fix that so fast if the Democrats would agree. But if they don't agree, we might as well do what they always say they want. We will bring the illegal -- I call them the illegals. They came across the border illegally. We will bring them to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it, whether it is a state or whatever it might be. California is certainly always saying, we want more people, and they want more people in their sanctuary cities, we will give them more people. We can give them an unlimited supply. And let's see if they are so happy. They always say they have open arms. Let's see if they have open arms. The alternative is to change the laws and we can do it very quickly, very easily.



