Trump, who also met Thursday in NY with members of a new Republican Party initiative meant to train young – and largely minority – volunteers, has been working to win over blacks and Latinos in light of his past inflammatory comments and has been claiming that the Democrats have taken minority voters’ support for granted.
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Trump’s comments are the latest turn in a now-daily recalibration of his position on immigration, which Trump said he would crystallize in a speech next week. But fast-forward a year, and the two men sound pretty similar.
Though a few people slam their doors after hearing Trump’s name, many listen to Cuellar’s points on why Trump should be president. “There is no path to legalization unless they leave the country and come back”, he said. “There’s no amnesty. But we work with them”, Trump said during a Fox News town hall.
The huge wall between the US and Mexico hasn’t gone anywhere, but the possible path to legalization is new and completely out of the Republican establishment’s handbook.
“If Trump should pivot on immigration or try to redefine amnesty, he will begin to lose support from his original core base”, warned Representative Steve King, R-Iowa, one of the most conservative voices on immigration in the House.
Trump, who has previously called for a deportation force to remove the estimated 11 million people living in the USA illegally, backed away from the idea of swift mass deportations. “I’ve had people say it’s a hardening, actually”, Trump said on CNN. That is the plan Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio both supported that Trump savaged in the primaries. “That’s not the imitation Trump was doing-he was doing a standard retard, waving his arms and sounding stupid: “‘Ahhh, I don’t know what I said-ahhh, I don’t remember!’ He’s going, ‘Ahhh, I don’t remember, maybe that’s what I said!'” Ted Cruz put it this way: “Donald will betray his supporters on every issue”.
Although his parents were once undocumented immigrants, Cuellar considers them an exception – good, hardworking people who are deserving of their new lives in America.
And though they all lost the primary to the billionaire, there’s probably a sense of vindication washing over more than a few of those Republicans now.
Yet now it’s Trump talking about allowing immigrants in the country illegally a way to stay here. So I can’t comment on his views because his views seem to be ever changing depending on what crowd he’s in front of.
Trump said Thursday he will lay out an “exact plan” on immigration in an upcoming speech. Trump, I love you, but to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough, Mr. Trump, ‘ I have it all the time! He even polled the audience on whether to allow some people in the country illegally to stay, a key part of President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s agendas. “You can’t take 11 [million] at one time and say, ‘Boom, you’re done, ‘” Trump said, adding: “Nobody even knows it’s 11 [million], it could be 30 [million], it could be 5 [million]”.
At a Thursday afternoon rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump sought to project strength in his immigration positions, reiterating his commitment to building a wall on the U.S. -Mexico border. Trump’s proposed wall is opposed by 61 percent of the country but backed by 78 percent of his supporters. “We’re going to have all the laws obeyed”.
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Still, Trump has been softening his language on immigration for several days, as he courts an electorate far less receptive to his harsher proposals, like for a wall along the Mexican border, than he faced in the primaries.
