Posted on 07/30/2015 10:24:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Is that a change from a hard-line immigration position, or an endorsement of it? The deport-then-immigrate position has long been the hard-line position on immigration on the Right, although it does have one twist that’s outside the orthodoxy. Donald Trump explained this to CNN’s Dana Bash in an exclusive interview last night, along with his thoughts on health care, which are decidedly less hard-line:
Trump said Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that as president he would deport all undocumented immigrants and then allow the “good ones” to reenter the country through an “expedited process” and live in the U.S. legally, though not as citizens.
“Legal status,” Trump suggested. “We got to move ‘em out, we’re going to move ‘em back in if they’re really good people.”
For a blustering candidate whose rhetoric has snatched headlines and galvanized a sizable segment of the Republican base, Trump’s comments Wednesday represent his most detailed explanation into what he would do with the estimated 11-plus million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
He had previously suggested that he favors a “merit-based system,” but did not delve into his support of granting legal status, but not citizenship to undocumented immigrants he calls “the good ones.”
But Trump is still a long ways from presenting a specific immigration policy platform and his explanation in Wednesday’s interview shows a candidate who — despite leading in the polls a week ahead of the first primary debate — is still largely dealing in broad strokes.
John King, Ron Fournier, and Julie Pace discuss this as a departure from a more hard-line approach, focusing on the proposal to expedite the return of those who haven’t committed any other crimes. Putting them at the front of the line might put off some hard-line immigration policy proponents who have argued for years that those emigrating legally should get priority:
Trump’s position will still find favor with most of those who have flocked to his banner on this issue, but it presents two all-but-impossible scenarios. First, deporting 11 million people might be theoretically possible but is completely impractical. It would take an enormous amount of resources for years just to identify those who needed to be deported, let alone the necessary police and court actions to accomplish the deportation, unless Trump and the GOP plan to re-use Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” argument from 2012, which went over oh so well. At the end of that, then the immigration system would have to focus exclusively on those who got deported rather than those who have waited patiently for the US to get its act together — unless the GOP plans to dump hundreds of billions of dollars more into DHS over the next few years over and above what they will need to spend on securing the border and the deportations themselves.
In other words, this is a budget buster, and will need new revenues — taxes — to fund. A lot more revenue. But Trump hasn’t really shifted his position on immigration, at least not in this interview, so much as he’s fleshed it out a bit more.
Trump also clarifies his position on health care. Not long ago, while in the Democratic Party, Trump endorsed single-payer health care as the best reform, at one time pointing to the Canadian system as a model. He now disavows that position, but talks about the need to expand government provided health care, potentially in the form of subsidies to providers to care for the poor. That’s basically a Medicaid expansion, which isn’t going to find favor with conservatives angry at other candidates like John Kasich for adopting that very approach.
I disagree. The law should be that if anyone enters the USA illegally then they are barred for life from entering the USA at all.
Round them up and put them on boxcars then, right? Should we tattoo numbers on their arms as well, just to make it really good?
I'd settle for a wall across our southern border, a moratorium on immigration, and the arrest and deportation of all crimigrants with criminal records.
Then we can deal with the messycan families who live here quietly. It's gone too far for any other solution.
If jorge busho had done the honorable and right thing during his administration, we might have had a chance. But he deliberately stabbed us in the back and made it impossible to fix.
LIES,LIES! YOU’RE A TRUMP HATER!/sarc
What Trump is basically saying is that if they have no criminal history (beyond being illegal in the first place) and come here to work and not suck off the system, they’ll get their green cards so they can work over here.
This is a much better plan than blanket amnesty for everyone. It forces them back across the border as necessary for re-entry into the U.S., allows us to vet them to see if they are desirable and can be of use, and it appeals to the moderates who think that mass deportation is too “cruel.” “Hey, I’ll let them back in based on a merit system. If they’re ‘good,’ they can come back in and work as long as they follow the legal process.”
It’s a good plan and one I believe can work.
That oh-so-reasonable compromise of yours (and Donald’s) would give us 30 million new Leftist voters, a majority of whom are low-skill and would be not only life-long, but muultigenerational drains on the public till. Meanwhile, that 30 million would swell to 90 million in no time via chain migration.
Turn out the lights, the USA is over.
Trump has also talked about the need for increasing immigration from European countries, of people who are highly qualified or who have benefited from our educational system.
Obviously Trump isn’t talking about a “moratorium on immigration,” but he is talking about increased immigration of high quality people that the country needs, which is exactly the reverse of the current policy, which is to keep 1st worlders out and let in the third world.
That is blanket amnesty for all but the worst criminals. Most of those who came here to work have committed many, many ID theft and other such felonies on top of being here illegally.
He would combine the cost of cleansing our country of them with none of the benefits of actually having them gone.
Of course not. We should tattoo "Property of Mexico"(or whatever their country of origin is) on their foreheads so that they'll be recognizable if they try to sneak back in.
That's not true, as Trump is requiring mass deportation of the entire 30 million. The people who are getting back in will be getting back in based on Need and Merit. They won't be amnestied, but will be required to go through the legal process and thus vetting. And Trump isn't even talking about giving them citizenship after they legally begin to work here.
Yeah, but he’d also have 30 million low-skill illegals already here made legal. And via chain migration they’d become 90 million.
Our country is done after that, just given how they’d vote.
So have you always been pro-amnesty, or did Trump talk you into it?
But you're assuming that when Trump says "good" people, he is including people who have committed ID theft and felonies. There is no reason to make that assumption.
Oh, yeah, because defending our borders, as every other country on the planet does, makes us Nazis, right?
But this isn't amnesty, unless you are talking about these people not being barred for life. Obviously, honestly, I would prefer they all be barred, as they did not respect American law. But, on a practical level, this "compromise" forces them back across the border and at least allows us to vet them and decide if letting them back in will really benefit the United States. That's what we call a rational immigration policy, one based on what benefits us and not the other way around. That's exactly what "merit" means here.
No mention of American workers suffering from stagnant wages and no jobs.
We missed the chance to defend the border about 13 million migrants ago.
I’m good with that. Them all having to return to Mexico and then go through a legal process to return here and eventually obtain citizenship. But no voting rights for at least 2 Presidential elections After they have obtained legal citizenship. Also any crime and Bingo they lose citizenship and back for good. Nah never happen:-)
Bingo—Why reward scofflaws with US citizenship?
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