At New College event, Republican panelists say Republican legislators, judges must fall in line with executive.
By Farah Vallecillo
Original Air Date: March 21, 2025
Host: Socrates was the philosopher of moderation, balance and the Golden Mean. On Thursday, sitting in gilded chairs on a stage in Sarasota under big letters invoking Socrates’ name, three powerful politicians representing the executive branch of government, guided by a moderator seemingly in line with their ideas, discussed immigration. All three Republican panelists used the opportunity to express the need of Republican-appointed judges and Republican legislators to fall in line with their ideas. Farah Vallecillo reports.
Tom Homan.
Farah Vallecillo: The same week Homeland Security Secretary Tom Homan defied a judge’s order over ramped-up deportation measures, he flew to Sarasota to share a stage at New College’s Sainer Auditorium with two like-minded politicians, Governor Ron DeSantis and former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.
New College President Richard Corcoran moderated the panel, apparently designed to dispel misunderstandings and provide fresh perspectives regarding deportation measures and immigration laws. Corcoran made it clear where his sympathies lay, praising Wolf’s think tank for placing members in the Trump administration and “changing the course of the country.” At one point, he started a question with “I agree with you, governor.”
Corcoran addressed Homan as “border czar.”
Richard Corcoran: I’ll start with you, border czar.
[Audience laughs]
RC: You’ve got to like Tom Homan. It’s hard not to.
[Audience applauds]
RC: I told them, “Hey, there may be some protests.” He goes, “I’m not coming if there aren’t any protests!”
[Corcoran and audience laugh]
FV: Corcoran continued to refer to Homan as “czar” every time he addressed him.
Security at the event was tight, beginning at the guarded gates of the Sainer Pavilion compound. Homan, DeSantis and Wolf entered and exited through the back doors of the auditorium. There was assigned parking for guests whose names were on the list, and everyone had to check in at the entrance with ID to get a wristband. Next was a metal detector, passing by a slew of police officers and security guards. Even as the audience sat, they were greeted with the gazes of Secret Service agents huddled at corners. Most of those in the audience were New College administrators, faculty, staff, board members and their family and friends. Just a few students were at the event, some of them working to help with logistics. There were only limited open seats, perhaps 100 of the Sainer Auditorium’s 260.
Throughout the 80-minute event, the audience was attentive and the panelists received loud applause and raucous cheers. When Corcoran introduced DeSantis as the “greatest governor in the country,” the crowd applauded and cheered even louder.
DeSantis noted that, with his wife Casey sitting in the front row, they’d like to send their children to New College, not Harvard or Yale.
All three panelists expressed the need to rein in judges. Wolf said judges and the Left are siding with terrorists. DeSantis attacked not only the three liberal Supreme Court judges, but also the Trump-appointed John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett.
Richard Corcoran and Ron DeSantis.
Ron DeSantis: The U.S. Supreme Court had a chance to nip all of this in the bud about a months ago. They could have just been aggressive and put these district judges in their place. But the three liberal justices are always going to be against no matter what. And then, of the six others, a lot of them aren’t reliable. Thomas is reliable. Alito is reliable. But you had a 5-4 where the Chief Justice and Justice Barrett sided with the liberals, kept these cases alive—and it was a different case than the one just there, but the principle is, “Are we ruled by the consent of the governed under elections and under a written constitution, or are we ruled by a district judge in D/C, Hawaii—wherever the hell they can shop for a judge to find somebody?” And then that trumps everything that is in the Constitution in terms of executive powers.
Congress—people say, “oh, these courts are out of control.” They’ve been out of control for a long time. It got worse under Trump 45. We knew this was going to happen. This is the most predictable thing. This is what the left would do. Congress has the authority to strip the courts of jurisdiction over certain issues. They can say, “You can’t hear any case involving the removal of an illegal alien or the removal of certain classes.” They could do that if they wanted to do it. They haven’t done that. They haven’t been aggressive on it. But that’s plain in the Constitution.
None of these courts exist, as a matter of—other than the Supreme Court—none of the other courts even exist as a matter of constitutional right. That’s purely the discretion of Congress to create and then set the jurisdiction.
FV: DeSantis also described birthright citizenship as a concept that must be challenged in the courts.
Wolf emphasized that current immigration policy has not been enshrined in law, so a future administration could readily roll it back.
DeSantis attacked Republican legislators both in Washington and Tallahassee and called for term limits for U.S. Congresspeople.
RDS: And they’ve really not—in Congress—done anything to codify any of these actions. Let’s be clear. You came in and it’s almost like the Trump administration has gone 100 miles a minute on all this stuff—everything but the kitchen sink—to move the country in the right direction. Congress is almost the opposite. They’re on a two-week vacation right now. They haven’t voted to codify—they haven’t successfully codified a single executive order. We were talking about the border wall. They just passed a continuing resolution—Republicans’ votes—that did not provide one cent for the border wall. It was just a continuation of Biden’s spending from last year. That’s all it was. USAID. They go on cable news—“oh, this is so bad”—and yet they voted to fully fund AID.
Now, President Trump’s probably not going to allow some of these grants to go out, which is great. But why wouldn’t Congress at least do that? I mean, DOGE is doing all this stuff. I think that they’ve not shown any inclination to do what Chad is saying needs to be done. What will happen is you will absolutely see all that go up in smoke. If a new president comes in in ‘29 that doesn’t agree with these policies, we’ve got to get this into law. And I think Congress needs to be way, way more aggressive than they’ve been so far.
[Audience applauds]
FV: In the course of explaining efforts to deport criminals, both Homan and DeSantis made clear that not only criminals would be deported. Anyone caught without proper papers is subject to deportation, both said. First, Tom Homan:
Photo via flickr.com/photos/us_icegov
Tom Homan: The media is all over right now—“Well, a big part of these criminal arrests are actually not criminals.” Yes, they are. Where do these collateral arrests happen? Sanctuary cities. Why? Because you forced us into the community to find a bad guy. So, when we find the bad guy, he’s probably with others—others that are in the country illegally but that are maybe not criminal aliens. They’re coming, too. We’re going to force immigration law, unlike the last administration under Mayorkas and Biden. They told ICE agents—immigration officers—“You cannot arrest an illegal alien for simply being here illegally. Unless they are convicted of a serious crime, you can’t arrest them.” That garbage is over with. If you’re in the country illegally, you’ve got a problem. It’s against the law. It’s not okay to cross the border illegally. It’s a crime.
FV: DeSantis seconded Homan:
RDS: If you say the only trigger for being deported is being convicted of a separate felony in the United States, then you’re basically saying we have a de facto open border. One of the reasons why we wanted to do what we do is because highway patrol—all these other guys—have interactions with people who are here illegally who have not been convicted of a separate crime. And, oh, by the way, in the special session, we made it a crime to enter Florida illegally and we created an enhanced felony if you’re in Florida after previously being deported and crossed the border illegally.
FV: Even though the organizers posted a QR code to submit questions to the panelists, the event ended with no discernible audience questions.
Reporting for WSLR News, Farah Vallecillo.
You can watch the full event here.
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