Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has said he will be making a speech on illegal immigration on Wednesday (31 August) in Arizona.
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Donald Trump stirred fresh controversy during a campaign speech in Iowa on Sunday when he said he would institute a tracking system that will ensure immigrants who overstay their visas are quickly removed from the country.
Instead, his latest plan will focus on border security and booting undocumented residents who have committed crimes.
The candidate’s evolving stance hasn’t made it easy for top supporters and advisers, from his running mate on down, to defend him or explain some campaign positions.
Native-born children of immigrants, even those living illegally in the US, have been automatically considered American citizens since the adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868.
And they didn’t bother defending his response Saturday to the killing of a mother as she walked her baby on a Chicago street.
Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, said in a conference call with immigration advocates Tuesday that he saw little hope for improvement in Trump’s “simplistic” approach, which Gallego called little more than a “trope appeasing the xenophobic base in the Republican Party”. “And the idea that it helps him with anyone is nonsense”, said Ann Coulter, one of Trump’s most avid supporters.
Some of Trump’s most prominent backers have said the GOP presidential nominee’s position remains consistent.
Asked if Trump still sought a “deportation force”, which he called for a year ago, Pence said Trump was speaking of “a mechanism, not a policy”.
“You’re going to hear more detail in the next two weeks that lays out all the policies, but there will be no change in the principle here”, he said.
Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s Campaign Manager, defended the tweet.
Tapper said he understands that Trump wants to remove violent, illegal immigrants, but he isn’t hearing what Trump will do about the 11 million people who came to the USA illegally: “And you’re not saying – right now, Governor, you’re not saying, you’re not pledging that there will be a removal of all undocumented immigrants”. Sixty-three percent of Republicans said that undocumented immigrants mostly fill jobs Americans don’t want to do.
Trump vowed during the GOP primary to deport millions of undocumented immigrants with a “deportation force”.
The poll found that 76 percent of Americans overall think that immigrants here illegally are as hardworking and honest as USA citizens, while 67 percent say they are no more likely than citizens to commit serious crimes. A group with such deep roots in the US would mean Trump’s plan to weed out “bad” immigrants is destined to fail, Johnson said, because it ignores the fact that this is their home.
That stance drew fire from conservatives who wanted him to stand fast after he won the Republican presidential nomination in large part by a hardline stance that would include building a wall along the USA border with Mexico.
The next day, he ruled out legal status, “unless they leave the country and come back”, he told CNN. But Trump is working to gain the advantage.
Donald Trump’s campaign is planning its biggest ad buy to date, upward of $10 million on commercials airing over the next week or so.
Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee, gave similar responses on immigration during an interview on NBC.
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson says he’s optimistic about getting into the presidential debates, but admits it would be “game over” if he doesn’t make the cut.
Trumps first tweet about the shooting ended this way: Just what I have been saying.
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“Every time an African American citizen, or any citizen, loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been totally violated”, he argued. Trump tweeted. He later sent a tweet offering his “condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family”.
