With the campaigning now over, a blindsided mainstream media is hysterically analyzing every comment and maneuver from the Trump team to assess exactly which of his many policies will take precedent on day 1 and those where there may be a little “wriggle room” on implementation. Obviously, reforming immigration policies in the United States was a cornerstone of the Trump campaign after he repeatedly made promises to build a border wall and deport all illegal aliens with criminal records.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, which is set to air tonight, reports suggest that Trump will confirm his plans to immediately deport the 2-3 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States with a criminal record. Trump is also set to confirm that construction of a border wall along our southern border will begin soon after inauguration. That said, according to The Hill, Trump failed to comment on the fate of the other 7-8 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally but do not have a criminal record, saying instead that his administration would make a “determination” on that point after the border is secure.
“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” the president-elect said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” to air Sunday evening. “But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally.”
After the border is “secure,” Trump said, his administration will begin to make a “determination” about what to do with the remaining undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
“After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that they’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that,” he said. “But before we make that determination…it’s very important, we are going to secure our border.”
Meanwhile, Trump also intimates in the 60 Minutes interview that certain parts of the border “wall” could actually be fencing.
President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview to air on Sunday that certain areas of his promised border wall with Mexico, a key part of his White House campaign platform, could be fence instead.
Asked in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” whether he would accept a fence instead of a wall, Trump said “for certain areas I would,” according to excerpts.
“But certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction, there could be some fencing,” Trump said.
As a reminder, here is a brief summary of the immigration policies that Trump laid out in his August 31, 2016 speech in Arizona just hours after meeting with the President of Mexico.
– Build the wall [and have Mexico pay for it].
– End the catch and release policy for undocumented immigrants and instead return them to their country of origin.
– Have zero tolerance for undocumented immigrants who have committed a crime, and deport them.
– Triple the number of deportation officers at the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
– Repeal President Obama’s executive orders that temporarily protected undocumented immigrants from deportation and authorized them to receive work permit
– Stop issuing visas to any country where “adequate screening cannot occur” that might endanger national security.
– Ensure foreign countries take back deported immigrants from the United States (Mr. Trump said 23 countries refuse to do so).
– Complete a biometric entry and exit visa tracking system under development. “It will be on land, it will be on sea, it will be in the air,” he said.
And here is the full speech from August 31st:
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