Make no mistake, Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies haven’t softened, and he has every intention of ripping families apart and deporting as many illegal immigrants as possible as quickly as possible. The summit, which brings together Republicans from across the West, runs through Sunday.
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While Trump had told reporters in Mexico he and Pena Nieto did not discuss who would pay for the proposed border wall, the Mexican leader – after staying silent as Trump did so – tweeted, “I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall”. After all, existing laws already prohibit illegal immigrants from working here and from receiving many government benefits.
Since the 1990s, politicians who have taken a tough stance on immigration have usually come out against amnesty for anyone living in the country illegally, but spoke favorably of legal immigration. The share of foreign-born people in the United States – 13 percent of the population – is at its highest level since 1920.
“For the money we are going to spend on illegal immigration over the next 10 years, we could provide 1 million at-risk students with a school voucher”, he added.
Any person living in the country illegally who is arrested “for any crime whatsoever”, he said, will immediately be placed into deportation proceedings.
The aggressive tone in Phoenix marked a shift from earlier in the day, when a much more measured Trump described Mexicans as “amazing people” as he appeared alongside Peña Nieto in Mexico’s capital city.
Trump’s “America First” positions are aimed at rallying mainly middle-class white people who feel they have lost jobs to illegal immigrants or to the outsourcing of jobs overseas. While much of the focus of Wednesday’s speech was on illegal immigrants, Trump also emphasized America’s right to be selective in whom it lets into the country, reinforcing the motivations behind his call for banning Muslims. The hats are especially ironic considering Trump has insulted the country numerous times throughout his campaign, not to mention his plan to build a wall along the United States-Mexico border. Some, like Monty until Wednesday night, had gotten deeply involved in the campaign in hopes of influencing the nominee on issues like immigration, while others, like veteran ad maker Lionel Sosa, have chose to leave the party altogether this election cycle.
“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.
Even Trump knows that Mexico isn’t paying for his wall, but that doesn’t stop him from lying to his supporters and justifying it by imagining a scenario where Mexico would be happy to pay for the wall. I said-they said, did you discuss the wall.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on August 31, 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona. Trump, Suarez said, was asked explicitly whether they would see a softening or any “hope” for at least some of the people now living in the shadows.
It was a unusual, head-swiveling, what-the-hell-just-happened day on the Donald Trump campaign trail. “But we need a broader, more tolerant policy”, said Clare Selden, 29, of Boston, who is white and plans to vote for Clinton.
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The problem for Donald Trump is exactly what a TV executive once warned me about when I kept insisting on booking an easily excitable guest – “He scares people”.
