And there certainly can be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people, we want people – we have some great people in this country. Politically, financially, legally, socially there is no way to deport 11 million people, many of whom have strong ties to American family members, American jobs, American culture, American communities.
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In November, Trump explained he would deploy a “deportation force” to carry out his plans to detain and eject millions of people from the United States and cited President Dwight Eisenhower’s injection of manpower and funding to deport undocumented immigrants in 1954.
Speaking before Trump’s campaign rally in Austin, Texas, Tuesday night, Alabama Republican senator and longtime Trump ally Jeff Sessions tried to parse Trump’s words, saying he was softening his position on the “legality” of illegal immigration. This time 51 percent of Trump supporters, a clear majority, agreed that illegals should be allowed to stay while 44 percent said they should be forced to leave the country. “We either have a country or we don’t have a country”. If any undocumented immigrants were allowed to stay in the US while they were attaining legal status, it would likely be seen by some as amnesty.
This shift could help Trump win over more moderate voters but could dispirit his strongest supporters. He pointed to people who like Trump but wish he would be more disciplined.
But in an interview with Bill O’Reilly, in which he responded to reports that he’s backing off of his vow of mass deportations – a promise he’s made many times – Trump basically admitted the whole story he’s been telling about immigration for the past year is a big scam.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said Trump should avoid any discussion of what to do about undocumented immigrants until steps are taken to stop their flow into the U.S. “When you have no governing philosophy, pivots are par for the course”.
Conceived in a spasm of xenophobia (Mexican “rapists”, the wall, mass deportations) and weaned on a diet of red-meat nativism (America First!), Donald Trump’s campaign has gloried in demonizing immigrants, particularly the undocumented variety. The insular strategy baffles the Republican strategists who say Trump has to broaden his appeal. Which explains why observers think Trump’s outreach to blacks and Latinos over the past 10 days is less about winning those voters and more about impressing those pro-Clinton white subgroups that he’s not the ogre that the Democrats and the media say he is. “That’s one of the things I enjoy about my husband is that he enjoys so many things and balloons is one of them”.
“I think his position needs to evolve a little bit”, another attendee said. “It has some problems”.
In fact, argues Coulter, a lot of Trump voters aren’t even being contacted by pollsters, because they’re so alienated from American politics that they aren’t even registered voters – yet.
Then, Pence added: “The details and how we do that – now, we’ll work that out with the Congress”. Democratic President Barack Obama’s attempts have failed to bear fruit amid partisan gridlock.
“We want to follow the laws”.
“(Former U.S. President George W.) Bush and even Obama sent people back so we can be more aggressive with that, but we can follow the laws”, he said.
“You have years and years of people waiting on line”.
“We’re going to enforce the laws that are on the books today, Major”, Pence said.
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His newly minted campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said Tuesday morning on Fox News that the campaign wants “to be fair to everyone” and said the campaign is making sure not to “rush through a speech let alone a plan”. Indeed, he repeatedly said that “existing laws” will remain in place.
