Power

Trump’s Immigration Speech Doubles Down on Hardline Tactics

Trump’s speech disappointed some of the GOP nominee’s Latino supporters, such as Jacob Monty, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council who resigned from his position following the event.

over the course of the night, Trump outlined a ten-point plan to address immigration in the United States that reiterated many of his past hardline approaches such as his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, initiate an “extreme vetting” program for immigrants, and create a “deportation force.” Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Donald Trump didn’t back down from his anti-immigration positions and rhetoric during a Wednesday speech in Arizona that was supposed to clarify the Republican nominee’s stance on immigration.

After suggesting he may be open to a “softening” his hardline stances on immigration last week during a Fox News town hall event, many thought Trump would be pivoting to debut a more moderate tone on the issue.

Instead, Trump outlined a ten-point plan to address immigration in the United States that reiterated many of his hardline approaches, such as his plan to build a wall along the United States-Mexico border, initiate an “extreme vetting” program for immigrants, and create a deportation task force.

“These ten steps, if rigorously followed and enforced, will accomplish more in a matter of months than our politicians have accomplished on this issue in the last 50 years,” Trump claimed.

Trump did not directly address how he would handle most of the nearly 11 million undocumented people living in the United States, instead promising to deport those with criminal records on “day one” of his presidency. (As Rewire‘s Tina Vasquez has noted, returning to the United States after being deported constitutes a felony.) He said that there would be “no amnesty” and that “anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation.”

Seemingly borrowing from Mitt Romney’s 2012 “self deportation” plan, Trump said undocumented immigrants hoping to become legal citizens must “return home and apply for reentry like everybody else.”

Trump pledged to cancel all of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and to complete a biometric entry-exit visa tracking system for those entering the country. He used several false talking points about immigration, such as the inaccurate claim that the federal government does not know how many undocumented people are in the United States.

Trump’s speech disappointed some of the GOP nominee’s Latino supporters, such as Jacob Monty, a member of Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council, who resigned from his position following the event.

“I was a strong supporter of Donald Trump when I believed he was going to address the immigration problem realistically and compassionately,” Monty told Politico. “What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate.”

Speaking Thursday morning on the Laura Ingraham Show—a conservative radio program notorious for the anti-immigrant rhetoric of host Laura Ingraham—Trump stood by his previous suggestion that he would soften his immigration plan.

“The line last week [was] you were softening on immigration, then you come out with a very specific, very pro-enforcement plan last night,” said Ingraham, according to Politico. “Where’s the softening?”

“Oh, there’s softening. Look, we do it in a very humane way, and we’re going to see with the people that are in the country,” replied Trump. “Obviously I want to get the gang members out, the drug peddlers out, I want to get the drug dealers out. We’ve got a lot of people in this country that you can’t have, and those people we’ll get out.”

“And then we’re going to make a decision at a later date once everything is stabilized,” added Trump.