But it may well have been intentional. “Donald Trump, as he expressed in one of his interviews recently, would find it very, very hard to throw out a family that’s been here for 15 years, and they have three children, two of whom are citizens”. They have bought into his spiel that as president he will “Make America Great Again”.
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Trump reiterated in a speech on Wednesday that the only way undocumented foreigners could live in the United States legally under his presidency would be to leave and apply for re-entry.
Speaking to reporters on his private plane in Ohio Monday, Trump said of his tough talk on immigration, “Some people loved it; A lot of people loved it”.
To Trump these are not mere executive failings; they are acts of betrayal.
A new poll released Friday by Latino Decisions found just 15 percent of Latino voters said they were certain to vote for the Republican nominee, with another four percent who said they were uncertain but leaning toward Trump. He has spoken freely about removing undocumented peoples upon taking office, “We will begin moving them out, day one”.
Green card holders are legal residents of the U.S. and they number about 13 million people. Since President George W. Bush tried to push forward a reasonable solution to the plight of 11 million or so undocumented immigrants living in the shadows, congressional Republicans have balked, afraid of a backlash from the far-right precincts that can determine GOP primary elections. Our government has no idea. But for critics, many already disposed to vote against him, his wavering on what has been his signature issue seems like a warning that he’s unable to handle a central element of any president’s job – making decisions’. “I repeat what I told you personally, Mr. Trump: Mexico will never pay for a wall”, he wrote in Spanish. The issue of illegal immigration is not the biggest problem facing this country, not even close.
Throughout the hotly contested primary campaign that featured 17 candidates, the real-estate tycoon from NY let it be known that his policy was based on this simple principle: Show no mercy. While it is understandable to limit who we allow in our country during times of tension and terrorism, there is no understanding given to racial profiling.
“They have to make a determination what happens when the border is secure”, Trump said. He returned to the hardline rhetoric that powered him to victory in the Republican presidential nomination race over 16 rivals, heartening those conservatives drawn to Trump by the issue.
But his mass deportation plan also triggered harsh responses from his critics. “The people who are hurt most by our failure to enforce immigration laws are people on the margins of society, and that’s recent legal immigrants, that’s blacks in many cases, and Hispanic workers who have to compete with this endless supply of illegal workers”.
What a unusual place our nation has come to when a candidate for president representing a major party, in a major policy speech, calls for “ideological certification” of immigrants. “And maybe some of them have to be thrown out, but not necessarily all of them”, he said. “Under my administration anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came”. So you know what the answer really is? “First of all, Mexico’s not going to pay for it”. Come on, folks. It’s a silly argument, it’s not an adult argument.
Michelle Obama is preparing for her first campaign appearance for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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But Trump has managed to persuade many working-class whites that illegal immigrants destroy neighborhoods, peddle drugs, murder innocents and drive down wages. Whether it was intentional remains to be seen.
