He went on to announce a detailed plan to deal with illegal immigration, which was heavy on removing criminals and gang members from the U.S. But it is his beloved border wall that’s still the highlight of his immigration policy.
Advertisement
Laying out a 10-point immigration plan, Mr Trump removed any ambiguity about whether he might soften his proposed approach toward the estimated 11 million “undocumented” immigrants, including thousands of Irish living illegally in the USA, and a path to legalisation.
During a speech that lasted over an hour, the Republican nominee for president presented a 10-step plan to control illegal immigration and, as he stated, to serve one goal. “We also discussed the great contributions of Mexican-American citizens to our two countries, my love for the people of Mexico and the leadership and friendship that we have between Mexico and the United States”.
This was Trump’s way of blurring the lines and shifting to a conventional hardline stance more consistent with his party’s leaders on Capitol Hill.
He did not commit to deporting every undocumented immigrant living in the United States as he previously had, but vowed that immigrants living in the United States illegally would never have a path to legal status under his presidency.
The Republican candidate had vacillated over the past week on whether he might offer illegal immigrants an opportunity to seek legal status.
“For those here illegally today who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only: to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else. there will be no amnesty”.
It was one in a series of stark declarations that framed a sweeping plan to crack down on illegal immigration following his more measured tone earlier in the day, when the Republican nominee huddled with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Neither Trump nor Peña Nieto specified what the meeting would be about, but many assumed the two would discuss immigration and Trump’s campaign promise that, if elected president, he would get Mexico to pay for a wall on the U.S.
But the risks of such a visit – Trump’s first official encounter with a foreign leader – were underscored when the stagecraft began to unravel over the issue of the wall on the Mexican border. But he wasn’t backing away from the proposal that has animated his campaign.
Last week, Pena Nieto extended invitations to visit Mexico to both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, who met with him in Mexico in 2014.
“I think there was an advance in general”, he added.
He repeated his vow for “extreme vetting” and for banning people from certain countries ― no longer the Muslim “ban” he once promised, but one with a fairly obvious aim of keeping out Muslims. He talked about creating a deportation task force.
So what we’re left with is a campaign that spent Wednesday afternoon trying to shake up the race with a transparently desperate grasp for global legitimacy, and then spent Wednesday night stomping all over their own efforts by getting caught in silly lies and having the candidate go on an extended wallow in the nativist fever swamp.
“We will issue detainers for illegal immigrants arrested for any crime whatsoever”, he said.
– Trump called for cutting off federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities” where police have been ordered not to enforce immigration laws or report undocumented immigrants to federal authorities for deportation. That omission didn’t bother Dan Stein, who leads the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that pushes for stricter immigration policies. And he cast immigrants as a primary reason workers – including African-Americans and Latinos – have struggled to find jobs.
“Anyone who tells you the core issue is the needs of those living here illegally has simply spent too much time in Washington”.
Advertisement
Trump’s calculation is that he needs the blue-collar worker in OH or Pennsylvania much more than the new Latino voter in Colorado or Arizona.
