White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Sunday President Donald Trump likes a plan to dump illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities and Democrats have said they want them there so the proposal could give 'everybody' a win.

'The president likes the idea and Democrats have said they want these individuals into their communities so let's see if it works and everybody gets a win out of it,' she said on ABC's 'This Week.'

The president confirmed the policy last week, which he said he was 'strongly' considering, after the Washington Post reported on the plan to send immigrants in custody to the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said President Trump likes a plan to dump illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities

President Donald Trump said he if the cities want more people he'll give them more

Trump also made clear he intends to target the immigrants in U.S. custody in the home-states and districts of his political rivals – despite statements by his staff that it was not in the offing.

'California is always saying 'We want more people.' We will give them a lot. We will give them an unlimited supply,' Trump said Friday.

Sanders said the White House has explored a number of options to stop illegal immigrants from coming over the U.S.-Mexico border. She added that the sanctuary cities option would not be a top choice.

'We talked about a number of different things over the last two years that we'd love to see happen. Certainly this wouldn't be our first choice because ideally we wouldn't be dealing with the massive influx of illegal immigrants coming across the border, the crisis that we have both from a national security and humanitarian standpoint,' she told ABC News.

She then pivoted into blaming the Democrats for the crisis at the border.

'If Democrats would step up and help the president fix the laws, this all could go away, we wouldn't be having this discussion,' she noted.

She said if immigrants were released into sanctuary cities it would be because of the Democrats.

'If Democrats continue to be unwilling to do that, then we're going to look at all of our options and we don't want to put all of the burden on one or two border communities. And Democrats have stated time and time again they support open borders, they support sanctuary cities. So, let's spread out some of that burden and let's put it in some of those other locations if that's what they want to see happen and are refusing to actually help fix the problem,' she said.

Sanders also pushed back against earlier denials from the White House that staff were exploring the option.

'This was raised at a staff level initially and pushed back on. The president wants us to export again, so that is being done and they're doing a complete and thorough review. But again, the big thing is, if Democrats, including the mayors and members of Congress in these communities want these individuals, they should be helping the president frankly look for solutions to bring them to their communities instead of fighting that president every step of the way,' she said on 'Fox News Sunday.'

Trump, in his comments, did not try to disguise politics as a motive for the policy, which he described as a way to strike back at political rivals who have blasted his calls for a border wall and his recent announced cut-off of aid to three Central American countries.

'California, the governor wants to have a lot of people coming, in refugees coming in. A lot of sanctuary cities. Well, we'll give 'em to the sanctuary cities maybe to take care of if, that's the way you want it.

Trump described some of the immigrants, who include asylum seekers, as 'very, very bad people.' Then he said of immigration officers: 'They come and they get 'em and they take 'em back and we get 'em the hell out of here.

The president then went on a tear about asylum laws, complaining that existing law places limitations on the amount of time people who are apprehended without documents can be held in custody while their claims are pending.

'We will give them an unlimited supply,' Trump said, describing a plan to bus illegal immigrants to 'sanctuary' cities in California and other areas where representatives have attacked his immigration policies

Trump has been unable to stop a surge in migrant arrivals from Central America

'The asylum laws are absolutely insane. They come up in many cases, they're rough gang members, in many cases they're people with tremendous crime records and they're given a statement to read by lawyers that stand there waiting for them. 'Read this statement,' and it says, 'I have great fear for my life, I have great fear for being in my country,' Trump said, using a tone suggesting the appeals are not sincere.

'Even though in some cases some of these people are holding their country's flags and waving their country's flags and then they talk about the fear they have of being in the country that they flag they were waving feely,' he said.

The president also once again blasted immigrant smugglers known as coyotes.

'Just got back from Texas and some of the ranchers tell me – you look at Brooks County, you look at some of the other places – some of the ranchers tell me you have bodies lying all over the land where you have coyotes give them a can of soda and they give ‘em a sandwich and they say Houston’s 300 miles in that direction and the people don’t know what that means,' Trump said.

Trump also described how he likes to refer to the immigrants. 'We’ll bring the illegal – what do you call them? The illegals. I call them the illegals. They came across the border illegally,' he said.

Earlier this week, he told a similar account saying they gave the immigrants a gallon of water.

White House officials have tried to pressure US immigration authorities to release migrants detained at the border into so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco to retaliate against President Donald Trump's political adversaries, the Washington Post reported on Thursday

Protesters chant during a May Day demonstration outside of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in San Francisco

SANCTUARY CITIES - WHAT AND WHERE Sanctuary cities - and states - are those which in broad terms protect illegal immigrants from deportation by federal authorities. There is no legal definition and no single set of laws - so agreeing which places are sanctuary cities or states is in itself contentious. But broadly, most sanctuary cities say that their police officers do not ask for immigration status, and do not report it to the federal authorities when they detain, arrest or process suspects. Most will also decline to detain illegal immigrants on requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless they are accused of serious crimes. The degree of seriousness varies from place to place. In New York, even a felony is no guarantee that an immigration detainer will be obeyed. California is the biggest single sanctuary area, with local law enforcement agencies banned by state law from using money, personnel or equipment to help federal immigration authorities act against illegal. While critics might say some places are sanctuary cities, local lawmakers often deny it. In Los Angeles, where cops are banned from stopping people solely on suspicion of being illegal, the mayor has rejected the label, and frequently co-operates with immigration agencies. Cities which identify as sanctuary include: Berkeley, California, since 1971 San Francisco, CA Boulder, Colorado Hartford, Connecticut St Petersburg, Florida Chicago, Illinois Urbana, IL Evanston, IL New Orleans, Louisiana Albany, New York Kalamazoo, Michigan Jersey City, New Jersey Newark, New Jersey New York, New York Portland, Oregon Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Seattle, Washington Cities accused of being sanctuary cities because of laws which limit co-operation with ICE, but which deny it include: Los Angeles, California Atlanta, Georgia Portland, Maine Baltimore, Maryland Boston, Massachusetts Detroit, Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan Minneapolis, Minnesota Advertisement

'That means they can’t make it, that means they have no chance, and they die. It’s something I never heard, I never heard it to this extent,' Trump said. 'Many people die, and they’ll say ‘just head in that direction.’ And we’re 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.”

The president said earlier he is giving 'strong considerations' to the issue, following a report that top officials were pushing the idea – including putting the immigrants into the home district Pelosi, who represents San Francisco.

'Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only,' Trump wrote, confirming a story in the Washington Post, an outlet he often attacks as part of the 'fake news.'

'The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!' Trump wrote.

By adding the word 'only,' the president provided a new detail to the plan. Although the paper had reported top aides pushed the idea with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it did not say sanctuary cities would be the only location where his administration would ship the illegal immigrants.

He also took a different tack than the White House, which shortly before his tweet downplayed the idea. 'The idea was briefly and informally raised and quickly rejected, according to a White House statement, the Washington Post reported.

A White House statement in the original story said: 'This was a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion.'

White House officials first raised the issue of releasing the illegal immigrants in November as a 'caravan' of Central American migrants approached the southern border, according to the report.

Immigration agency officials identified White House senior advisor Stephen Miller as a key figure behind the effort, which occurred as President Donald Trump railed against in influx of illegal immigration and blasted 'catch and release' policies that put immigrants and asylum-seekers on the streets.

'Officials at [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] understood that he was pressing the plan,' the Post reported, in reference to Miller. The powerful aide, who is identified as pushing a purge of top homeland officials, declined to comment, and was not identified in electronic documents that served as the partial basis for the story.

Said a congressional investigator who spoke to a whistleblower about the plan: 'It was basically an idea that Miller wanted that nobody else wanted to carry out,' said one congressional investigator who has spoken to one of the whistleblowers. 'What happened here is that Stephen Miller called people at ICE, said if they're going to cut funding, you've got to make sure you're releasing people in Pelosi's district and other congressional districts.'

The plans that were discussed involved putting the immigrants in areas associated with Trump's political rivals.

While speaking at the conclusion of the Democrats annual retreat Friday in Leesburg, Va., Pelosi scoffed the idea as unfit for the presidency in a nation comprised of immigrants.

'I don't know anything about it,' Pelosi said regarding the idea. 'But again, it's just another notion that is unworthy of the presidency of the United States and disrespectful to the challenges that we face as a country – as a people – to address who we are: a nation of immigrants.'

The Post, which reviewed emails on the issue and spoke to unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, said the White House proposed the measure at least twice in the past six months.