The White House is considering new executive actions as well as a series of legal strategies to enact President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from seven majority Muslim countries, top policy aide Stephen Miller said Sunday.
“Right now we are considering and pursuing all options. Those options include seeking an emergency stay at the Supreme Court, continuing the appeal with the panel, having an emergency hearing en banc, or going to the trial court in the district level and trial on the merit,” Miller told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.
“They also include, as you mentioned, the possibility of new executive actions designed to prevent terrorist infiltration of our country,” Miller said.
His comments come after a three-judge panel unanimously rejected the Trump administration’s effort to lift a judge’s hold on that travel ban that sparked protests at airports across the nation.
Miller also defended Trump’s ability to institute the travel ban via executive order.
“I want to say something very clearly, and this is going to be very disappointing to the people protesting the President and the people in Congress like Sen. (Chuck) Schumer who’ve attacked the President for his lawful and necessary actions: The President’s powers here are beyond question,” Miller said.
“Those powers are substantial. They represent the very apex of constitutional authority,” he said. “And so we are contemplating new and additional actions to ensure our immigration system does not become the vehicle for admitting people into our country who are hostile to its nation and its values.”
Miller made similar comments on other Sunday news shows.
Asked by CBS’ John Dickerson on “Face the Nation” what the White House has learned through its experience with Trump’s travel ban, Miller pointed to judicial overreach.
“I think it’s been an important reminder to all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government,” he said. “One unelected judge in Seattle cannot make laws for the entire country.”