Besides being a simplistic answer, Trump is trying to avoid answering the question. This morning Trump said, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump on Friday hinted at a merit system for some of the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants in the country while saying that we take the bad ones and get em the hell out.
"Well, the first thing we do is take the bad ones of which there are, unfortunately, quite a few, he said. We take the bad ones and get em the hell out. We get em out. We give em back to Mexico or we make sure they stay or where they come from. Because they dont all come from Mexico. They come from other places. They use that border but they come from other places. We get em out and get em out fast. And we get em out permanently. Thats a big thing.
Then the other ones and Im a very big believer in merit system, he said. I have to tell you some of these people have been here, theyve done a good job. You know, in some cases, sadly, theyve been living under the shadows, etc., etc. We have to do something. So whether its merit or whether its whatever, but Im a believer in the merit system. If somebodys been outstanding, we try and work something out. But before we do anything, we have to secure the border because the border is like having no border.
Securing the border only solves part of the problem. 40% of the lawbreakers came here legally and overstayed their visas. We need a system to track and deport visa overstays.
Trump provides no specifics on exactly how many of his estimate of 34 million illegal aliens would be allowed to stay and how his "merit" system would be implemented. Gingrich had something similar. Even McCain said that the "2 million criminal aliens should be deported immediately."
We need to focus on first things first. Build the wall. That is what got Reagan. He gave them amnesty with a promise of a wall. no wall to date.
There was no wall proposal in the 1986 Simpson--Mazzoli bill. There were enforcement provisions including fining employers who hired illegal aliens. It was never enforced and the amnesty process was rife with fraud. Phony document mills were set up within blocks of the processing centers. The USG estimated that 1 million would apply (you had to be here five years to apply), but the true number turned out to be 2.7 million.
Lets reverse that. A REAL wall with a promise of reform. Let gridlock take care of reform.
How about attriction thru enforcement? We also need to reduce legal immigration substantially from the current 1.1 million a year.
+1