Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, told CBS earlier in the day that Trump would make clear “that there will be no path to legalization, no path to citizenship”.
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Still, Trump laid out a series of tough policies to tackle illegal immigration when he delivered his speech in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday night. Don’t expect a “deportation force”. And some moderate Republicans have cautiously embraced Trump’s apparent tone shift.
Trump called Mexican-Americans “spectacular” and “amazing”, and Pena Nieto mentioned disagreements and the fact that Mexicans felt “aggrieved”, but Mexico’s president never did what people here wanted most: demand that Trump apologize for suggesting that many Mexican migrants were rapists or criminals.
Trump has promised, if elected, to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally, force Mexico to pay for the construction of a wall to secure the almost 2,000-mile border and renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement to make it more favorable to the United States.
“What we saw today from a man who claims to be the ultimate “deal maker” is that he doesn’t have the courage to advocate for his campaign promises when he’s not in front of a friendly crowd”, Podesta said, before accusing Trump of wanting to build a costly wall at American taxpayers’ expense. “And Mexico will pay for the wall”.
“We did discuss the wall, we didn’t discuss payment of the wall, that will be for a later date”.
– “FMR PRES of Mexico, Vicente Fox horribly used the F word when discussing the wall”.
Building a massive wall along the United States border with Mexico and forcing the neighbouring country to pay for it has been a frequent promise during Trump’s divisive election campaign. That was the message from Donald Trump Wednesday evening in an angry, impassioned speech detailing his plan on immigration.
Trump has whipsawed over whether he would truly attempt to deport the estimated 11 million immigrants who are here illegally, as he promised during the primary.
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime”. One such ally anxious about Mr. Trump’s potential softening, author Ann Coulter, tweeted that “I hear Churchill had a nice turn of phrase, but Trump’s immigration speech is the most magnificent speech ever given”.
Within weeks, he was vowing to deport all undocumented immigrants.
Trump is telling thousands of supporters in Phoenix that “you can not obtain legal status by entering the country illegally”. “We will find them, we will get them out”.
The two men met privately and discussed a range of topics that included illegal immigration and the possibility of amending the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, but they came away with markedly different interpretations on the question of Mexico’s willingness to pay for a wall. That dialogue was, of course, noticeably absent from Trump’s tête-a-tête with the Mexican president.
“He wasn’t softening on anything”.
The president of Mexico says Donald Trump wasn’t telling the truth when he described their Wednesday conversation.
Trump’s speech came after days of uncertainty, during which the candidate and his aides appeared to waffle on his immigration approach amid.
“People will know that you can’t just smuggle in, hunker down and wait to be legalized”.
Trump’s speech comes at a critical juncture for his candidacy, which has stared down deficits in every major national poll in the last month as well as in a slew of polls in key battleground states.
The Trump campaign was, however, widely criticized by the media for failing to alert his traveling press corps of the trip, which was announced Tuesday, with their plane having been directed to Phoenix, where he was scheduled to give his immigration speech later in the day – leaving outlets to fend for themselves on covering the event. “I respect him for that”, Trump told CNN later.
Trump has sought to flip his fortunes by shaking up his campaign leadership – ditching his campaign chairman Paul Manafort in favor of hiring a new campaign manager and chief executive – and ramping up outreach to minority communities, notably African-Americans and Hispanics.
“We need a system that serves our needs – remember, it’s America First, to choose immigrants based on merit, skill and proficiency and to establish new immigration controls to boost wages and to ensure that open jobs are offered to American workers first”.
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Trump addressed several other immigration-related policies that he has previously mentioned during the campaign, including “extreme” vetting practices and a list of countries whose citizens are banned from receiving USA visas.
