President Donald Trump doubled down on potentially sending asylum seekers to sanctuary cities while they await a hearing, saying in the Oval Office today that the U.S. can send states like California “an unlimited supply — and let’s see if they’re so happy”:

President Trump: "California certainly is always saying, 'Oh we want more people,' and they want more people in their sanctuary cities. Well, we'll give them more people. We can give them a lot. We can give them an unlimited supply — and let's see if they're so happy." pic.twitter.com/veO3Hl0X9G — The Hill (@thehill) April 12, 2019

If you have the time, here are his full remark which are well worth a watch:

“We are giving very strong consideration to having people, after a 20 day period–because legally we’re not allowed to hold them for more than that–we will move them to sanctuary cities.”

“We are giving very strong consideration to having people, after a 20 day period–because legally we’re not allowed to hold them for more than that–we will move them to sanctuary cities.” -President Trump on plan to release immigrants in DHS custody in sanctuary cities. pic.twitter.com/XYa6b7bCg0 — CSPAN (@cspan) April 12, 2019

Earlier in the day, the White House first pushed back on media reports of this proposal but then seemed to embrace it after the president confirmed the stories in a series of tweets:

Statement A was coming from the WH press office just before his let's-dump-migrants-in-sanctuary-cities tweet. Statement B is the new and improved WH press office statement, released shortly afterward. pic.twitter.com/sNP0UroS6Z — S.V. Dáte (@svdate) April 12, 2019

But it’s not sure if DHS is really going to take this seriously:

Amazing: "Following Trump’s tweets, a Department of Homeland Security official said DHS is not drawing up plans to implement the proposal. The official requested anonymity to contradict the president." https://t.co/RLbxFzEsGw — Mark Berman (@markberman) April 12, 2019

And according to media reporting, DHS pushed back against Trump earlier this year when this came up before:

In February, according to documents obtained by CNN, the general counsel for DHS told WH in writing that such a move could only be done if there was a "strong, mission-related rationale" pertaining to the responsibilities of DHS, per ⁦@jaketapper⁩ https://t.co/bEyyakmbcl — Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 12, 2019

To be continued. . .

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Related:

BOOM! Donald Trump scores a major legal victory as the 9th Circuit (!!!) rules in his favor on the 'remain in Mexico' plan https://t.co/qmiesEo66P — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 13, 2019

Ted Lieu warns Trump of impeachment over comments the media says were 'possibly a joke' https://t.co/PBwVwRprd7 — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 13, 2019

AMAZING self-own in progress! Adam Schiff’s attempted dunk on Trump over #SanctuaryCities goes SO WRONG https://t.co/M7KjUNWVHs — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 12, 2019