Did he sound like Donald Trump at a Donald Trump rally? Meet the ugly American. He got into a Twitter war with the president of Mexico. Well, that’s just terrific.
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This was the Trump we all knew, the Trump who questions the judicial independence of an American-born judge because of his Mexican heritage, who fights with Mexican American journalists, and who asserts that Mexico is “killing us”.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro Innaritu has slammed Mexican President Pena Nieto for inviting Donald Trump to visit the country. Trump simply doesn’t play well with others (except perhaps for his friends in Russia).
When asked to give details on Donald Trump’s immigration plans, surrogates for the Republican candidate seem to turn into the shrugging shoulders emoji: ¯/_ (ツ) _/¯. Enrique, I love you. On border security, Trump renewed his commitment to a “physical” wall on the southern border (as well as, alas, his absurd promise that Mexico would pay for it), pledged to swell the ranks of the understaffed Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies, and vowed to deploy technology, such as below-ground sensors, to aid them.
“We’re going to make that decision into the future”, Trump told reporters when discussing the possibility for a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“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”, Trump blared. “Whether it’s me or somebody else because by that time we’ll have a secure border, we’ll have a wall”, Trump responded.
Reese Toney, 24, of Glen Allen, Virginia, said he was from a mixed race background, noting that he had Hispanic, Italian and African-American roots and his grandfather was originally from Mexico. “One-hundred percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall”.
Two Trump surrogates suggested on Sunday morning news shows that the GOP presidential nominee’s policies were directed exclusively at the criminal element among the undocumented and that there would not be a mass deportation of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, despite Trump insisting Wednesday that “anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation”. Peña Nieto recalled differently, saying he stated at the top of the discussion that Mexico would not be paying for any such wall.
She said Trump “choke [d]” during the Mexico trip. That risk, that threat, must be confronted.
But, Wilson added, “Who am I to criticize him?” More than half of them quit, complaining that Trump has not softened his position in how to accommodate undocumented immigrants.
Trump has struggled to strike the right tone on how he would take on illegal immigration if elected on November 8. “Anybody. Just come on in, ‘” said Trump, the celebrity businessman and former Atlantic City casino mogul. “He didn’t deliver any of that”.
Panel member Ramiro Pena, a Baptist pastor in Texas who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, wrote in an email to party leaders that he believed Trump would lose the election and that the advisory panel was a “scam”.
If Trump wants to continue making this issue the center of his campaign, he is free to do so.
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Those of us who actually are Mexican or Muslim – or merely look like we are – have heard this loud and clear. But other Hispanic immigrants in Florida will take a dimmer view. We secure the border. He would round up at least 2 million people and deport them apparently without grasping the manpower, jail facilities and courtrooms such a dragnet and court proceedings would require.
