National security advisor on dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, Venezuelan deportations and more

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Mike Waltz, White House National Security Advisor, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the United States seeking "full dismantlement" of Iran's nuclear program.

"All options are on the table, and it is time for Iran to walk away completely from its desire to have a nuclear weapon. That and they will not, and cannot, be allowed to have a nuclear weapons program," Waltz said.

Waltz also adds, "We've seen the death and destruction that they're doing through its proxies, between Hezbollah, the Assad regime, the Houthis, and what have you. If they had nuclear weapons, the entire Middle East would explode in an arms race. That is completely unacceptable to our national security."

During the interview, Brennan and Waltz talked about the deportation of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador.

On March 15, the U.S. government deported 238 male Venezuelan citizens on three flights to El Salvador, accusing them of being part of a transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua, which President Trump has labeled a foreign terrorist group and wartime enemy.

Upon landing, the deported men were forcefully led off planes by heavily armed Salvadoran authorities. They were marched into armored vehicles, had their heads shaved and were transferred into cells inside El Salvador's notorious maximum security prison, known as CECOT.

The high-profile deportations quickly set off a legal battle in the U.S. The court fight initially centered on the legality of Mr. Trump's move to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel many of the Venezuelan deportees.

It has since expanded into a showdown over whether the Trump administration knowingly defied a federal judge's order to halt deportations under the wartime law and turn the flights around.

U.S. officials have said 137 of the Venezuelan men were treated as "enemy aliens" and removed from the country under the 18th century law. The other 101 were deported under regular immigration procedures, the officials have said.

According to Brennan, El Salvador rejected two people: "One on the basis of gender because it was a woman and they can't be held at a maximum security," and "the other because the person" was not Venezuelan, prompting her to ask Waltz how this "kind of high consequence mistake happen," to which Waltz said:

"I can't speak to those individual cases and the details of the individual cases, but what I can speak to is, President Trump has determined that this group is acting as a terrorist organization. It is terrorizing our communities through attacks, torture, rape, and the most awful of situations for those communities, number one, and number two, the Alien and Sedition Act fully applies, because we have also determined that this group is acting as a proxy of the Maduro regime."

Waltz then adds, "Every one of them were here illegally. So first of all, we had every right...and should deport every one of these individuals. If you want to make a special case for one, that's fine. But underlying that is the Alien Act that has determined that Commander in Chief has the absolute authority to do this."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Waltz talked about the ongoing war with Ukraine, where Waltz said, "We're closer to peace than we ever have been."

"We were in an endless stalemate here, and now we have both sides in the same facility with the United States really living out, I think, in real time, President Trump's vision to end this war, which he campaigned on," Waltz added.

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Waltz, click here.