“Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia”, Clinton said in a scathing speech in Nevada. “When they come back in, then they can start paying taxes, but there is no path to legalization unless they leave the country and then come back”.
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He also said he doesn’t think there’s a “softening” of his position. “There’s no amnesty, but we will work with them”, he said at another point.
But he repeated his pledge that there would be “no legalization” route for undocumented immigrants already in the United States, even those who have committed no crime. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that he was in favor of a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants with no criminal record, as long as they paid “back taxes” – which was essentially the position of his primary opponents Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.
King, who called the initial softening a “mistake”, now says Trump’s consideration of legal status “gives me an uneasy feeling in my stomach”.
“It comes down to complicated and very precise decisions to resolve very hard problems, but you can’t just solve them by coming up with some little bold statement”, he said.
He described some Mexican immigrants as “criminals and rapists” in a 2015 speech launching his candidacy and more recently questioned the impartiality of an American-born judge of Mexican heritage.
“He may try to disguise his plans by throwing in words like “humane” or “fair” but the reality remains that Trump’s agenda echoes the extreme right’s will – one that is fuelling a risky movement of hatred across the country”, she said.
Trump was directly contradicting and walking backward on what he told Sean Hannity of Fox News on Wednesday.
Trump told reporters in Trump Tower Thursday that he would be making an immigration speech in a ‘week or so’.
“Because Hillary Clinton and her running mate, (Tim) Kaine, have promised amnesty to illegal aliens within the first 100 days of a win for them”, Gheen says. The Democratic nominee, who has been working to paint her opponent as fearmongering and racist, also said that Trump’s “disregard for the values that make our country great is profoundly unsafe”.
For example, a 2013 Senate plan engineered by Rubio and the “gang of eight”, would have put immigrants on a 13-year pathway toward that goal.
“There is a very good chance the answer could be yes”, Trump said when asked if he would deport those who have lived here peacefully but without papers. He added: “I don’t think you’re gonna round up and deport 12 million people”.
“You either have a country or you don’t”.
At a Thursday afternoon rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump sought to project strength in his immigration positions, reiterating his commitment to building a wall on the U.S. -Mexico border.
“All the things that Donald Trump railed against, he seems to be morphing into”, Bush said in a radio interview, Politico reported.
The wavering marks a sharp departure from previous year, when Trump said in television interviews on NBC and MSNBC that illegal immigrants “have to go” and he vowed to create a “deportation force”.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is insisting his immigration plans won’t involve amnesty for undocumented immigrants.
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The issue Bush and Rubio ran into with the GOP base was that many conservatives saw anything short of deporting all illegal immigrants as a form of “amnesty”, which has become one of the most damaging words to be associated with in Republican circles. Here’s what people living along the border have to say about that wall.
