The aggressive tone during his speech in Phoenix marked a shift from the NY billionaire’s demeanor earlier in the day, when a much more measured Trump described Mexicans as “amazing people” as he appeared alongside Pena Nieto in Mexico’s capital city.
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What even his allies didn’t know was how firmly he would reinforce his previous positions on illegal immigration. “What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate”.
“I was very clear – in private and in public – in stressing that in Mexico we feel offended and hurt by his pronouncements about Mexicans”, Pena Nieto wrote in a piece in the newspaper El Universal on Thursday entitled “Why did I meet Donald Trump?”.
“The proposal to build the wall, and to believe that Mexico could and would pay for it, is outrageous”, presidential spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told local radio on Thursday, after Trump’s rapid, impromptu visit to Mexico on Wednesday.
Donald Trump’s meeting Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto gave the Republican presidential nominee everything he wanted – to share the stage as one leader to another – and in turn made the Mexican president look weak. Trump told reporters they didn’t discuss who would pay for the border wall he’s proposing; Nieto tweeted that he told Trump Mexico wouldn’t foot the bill.
Alfonso Aguilar, president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, had prominently endorsed Trump after initially opposing his candidacy.
“And they’re great people, and great leaders, but they’re going to pay for the wall”, he said.
“Maybe they’ll be able to deport her”. “He essentially rolled over and allowed Mr. Trump to get away with his own goals without getting anything in return”.
“It’s our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us”, he said to the crowd. Pastor Alberto Delgado said while he didn’t agree with everything Trump had said on immigration, he will continue his role on the advisory board. He insisted there would be a deportation task force, trebling the number of deportation officers.
And the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump had called a “disaster” and promised to “rip up”?
That was, until Wednesday night in Arizona.
However, again, Trump shifted his emphasis – saying those officers would work with local and state law enforcement officials to round up criminals immediately, rather than suggesting they’d boot all undocumented immigrants, regardless of their actions within the United States.
He says, “we will stop apologizing for America”.
Seeking to end confusion over his aggressive but recently muddled language on immigration, Donald Trump vowed Wednesday to remove millions of people living in the country illegally if he becomes president, warning that failure to do so would jeopardize the “well-being of the American people”. And he cast immigrants as a primary reason workers – including African-Americans and Latinos – have struggled to find jobs.
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Instead, Trump repeated the standard Republican talking point that only after securing the border can such a discussion begin to take place.
