Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that he supports securing the border first, and is “a very big believer in the merit system” for illegal immigrants already in the US “Because some of these people have been here, they’ve done a good job. You know, in some cases, sadly, they’ve been living under the shadows,” adding “If somebody’s been outstanding, we try and work something out” on Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Trump was asked what he would do to secure the border, he answered, “Well, before you do anything, Mika, and I mean this and I say it to everybody, you have to secure the border. You know, in terms of getting people. When we were there, ABC this evening, you know, the major ABC broadcast was there, they were setting up. And there were illegals running past their cameras, and people running after them. It was a whole mess. They ended up fighting on the ground, and it was crazy. And it’s all over the place. And by the way, Laredo, and areas like that…it’s down in the valley that’s the really big problem. When people want to come in, they go down in the valley. You have to secure the borders. Now you can use combinations of walls. You can you use fences. You can use, in some cases, the river in this case, they have a river which is certainly helpful. But you have to do something to secure the border. We don’t have a country without a border. Without a border, we just don’t have a country.”
Later he was asked what he would do with the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country. Trump responded, that he doesn’t believe the 11 million number is accurate, and the number of illegal immigrants could be as high as 30 or 34 million.
He continued, “Well, the first thing we do is take the bad ones, of which there are, unfortunately, quite a few. We take the bad ones, and get them the hell out. We get them out. We give them back to Mexico, or we make sure they stay, or where they come from, because they don’t all come from mexico. They come from other places. They use that border, but they come from other places. We get them out, and we get them out fast, and we get them out permanently. That’s a big thing, because if you look at what’s going on with big crime waves like Kate in San Francisco, pushed into our country five times, and the fifth time he killed Kate. And you have many cases, you have hundreds and hundreds of cases like that. We have to get the bad ones out. Then the other ones — and I’m a very big believer in merit system. I have to tell you. Because some of these people have been here, they’ve done a good job. You know, in some cases, sadly, they’ve been living under the shadows, etc. etc. We have to do something. So, whether it’s merit or whether it’s whatever, but I’m a believer in the merit system. If somebody’s been outstanding, we try and work something out. But before we do anything, Joe, we have to secure the border, because the border is like having no border.”
(h/t politicalturkey)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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