Trump on Criminal Illegals: ‘Both Sides Need to Grow Up and Put America’s Interests First’

Univision and NBC may claim to be distancing themselves from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump over his recently stated opposition to criminal illegal aliens, but Trump’s strong stance against criminal illegals has been well established for years and buttressed by governmental data.

In his 2011 bestselling book, Time to Get Tough, Trump held both Republicans and Democrats responsible for the nation’s failed immigration policies and cited Government Accountability Office (GAO) data revealing the economic costs the nation’s 351,000 criminal aliens imposed on U.S. taxpayers at the time.

“Both sides need to grow up and put America’s interests first—and that means doing what’s right for our economy, our national security, and our public safety,” wrote Trump. “According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) 2011 report, America’s prisons house 351,000 criminal aliens who committed a crime after having already broken the law by entering America illegally.”

Trump added, “Making taxpayers pay for 351,000 criminals who should never have been here in the first place is ridiculous.”

Trump noted that even the government’s own figures estimated the incarceration costs of these illegal criminals is $1.1 billion. Perhaps even more staggering than the economic costs are the human costs, wrote Trump. He cited the GAO’s figures which reveal that criminal illegal aliens commit acts that result in an average of seven arrests.

Trump also pointed out the New York Times’ 2009 reporting on the fact that one out of every three federal prison inmates is Latino. He also chronicled the violence against Border Patrol agents, as well as the notoriously violent MS-13 gang’s crimes against citizens.

In Time to Get Tough, Trump also emphasized the necessity of finishing the border fence and cited the success rates of the double- and triple-layered fencing used in some places that have sent border-crossing rates plunging.

“Properly built walls work,” wrote Trump. “We just need the political will to finish the job.”

So why are Univision and others only now taking issue with Trump’s longstanding and factually argued opposition to criminal illegal aliens? One possible answer: Trump continues to surge in the polls.