The proponents of amnesty are wont to create the false choice between mass deportation and a blanket amnesty. The premise is that since you can't deport 11 to 30 million illegal aliens, you must grant them amnesty.
We have other choices. One is called attrition thru enforcement. From the outset, you start enforcing the immigration laws of the country. It is illegal for illegal aliens to work here and it is illegal for employers to hire them. You shut off the job magnet with mandatory e-verify. You secure the border and set up a system to track and deport visa overstays who comprise 40% of the illegal aliens.
You eliminate sanctuary cities and enlist state and local law enforcement resources to help identify, apprehend, and deport illegal aliens.
Most of the illegal aliens will go home if you make it very difficult for them to live here. We have empirical evidence it works from AZ when it imposed mandatory e-verify for all businesses in the state.
Trump goes to some length in his position paper on how enforcement will work. Here is the link, Immigration Reform That Will Make America Great Again--The three core principles of Donald J. Trump's immigration plan
And then to let the “good ones” back in—a path to citizenship—to me that sounds like a form of amnesty.
I agree. Trump is winging it and should stop saying it. It undermines his position paper, which really comes from Jeff Sessions office. Trump makes it sound like a variation of Mike Pence's old scam. But Trump is adamant that they must leave the country. No other candidate is saying that. All the others with the possible exception of Santorum support amnesty.
And I have heard Rubio, out of his own mouth, advocate exactly those measures, when he was asked about the issue at the recent candidate forum in South Carolina.