Donald Trump is drawing back from the hardline position on immigration that brought him lots of primary voters. He now says that he is open to “softening” immigration laws, expressing sympathy for immigrants who have been here for over a decade. His earlier statement that he would deport all illegal immigrants seems to be off the table.
His “exact” immigration policy will be released possibly next week, but what has come out so far makes him sound like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz, all of whom he pilloried on this issue. See this response from the Cruz camp.
Do you think this is a sign of Trump’s growing realism, compassion, and “becoming presidential,” or is it a betrayal of his earlier voters? Is this a welcome moderation from his earlier extremism, or does it show that Trump is just another politician after all? Would a shift on immigration make you more or less willing to vote for him?
From Nick Gass, Trump’s allies squirm on immigration shift – POLITICO:
Donald Trump’s softer talk on immigration is causing heartburn among his some of his hard-line supporters, leaving them to either defend or distance themselves from his pledge to offer relief for certain undocumented immigrants.
The Republican presidential nominee has staked much of his campaign on his promise to build a giant border wall and to use a “deportation force” to forcibly remove 11 million undocumented immigrants. But this week, he has pulled back, saying he’s open to “softening” immigration laws and that he’d like to “work with” non-criminal undocumented immigrants — a plan that sounds strikingly similar to those from Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.
“No citizenship. Let me go a step further — they’ll pay back taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them,” Trump said in an interview that aired Wednesday night, setting off another round of head-scratching over where he stands.
“Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out. But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject, and I’ve had very strong people come up to me, really great, great people come up to me, and they’ve said, ‘Mr. Trump, I love you, but to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough, Mr. Trump,’ I have it all the time. It’s a very, very hard thing,” he said.
Trump said on Thursday that he will be laying out his “exact plan” on immigration over the next week. In the meantime, the wobbles have incensed some of his ardent supporters and left others squirming.
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