Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that after getting out the “bad” illegal immigrants, he would get the others out and “have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so they can be legal,” because “when somebody’s terrific, we want them back here” legally, adding that with DREAMers “We’re going to something” in an interview aired on Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead.”
Trump stated, “Number one, the first thing we do, is get the bad ones out. we have a lot of bad dudes as I said, you have a lot of really bad people here. They’re in our prisons, and they’re clogging up our prisons. I want to them to go back — and not only Mexico, I want to get them back to the country…and I want them to be in their prisons.”
He added, “Then we have a law, right? You’re supposed to come in legally. I would get people out, and I would have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so they can be legal.”
Trump, then stated that he could find these illegal immigrants and “get them out,” a process that he argued is “feasible if you know how to manage,” and that politicians couldn’t do because they don’t know how to manage.
He added, “We have to bring great people into this country, okay? And I want to bring — I love the idea of immigration, but it’s got to be legal immigration. Now, a lot of these people are helping us, whether it’s the grapes, or whether it’s jobs, and sometimes it’s jobs, in all fairness, I love our country, but sometimes it’s jobs that a citizen of the United States doesn’t want to do. I mean, there are jobs that a lot of people don’t want to do. I want to move them out, and we’re going to move them back in, and let them be legal, but they have to be in here legally. … Otherwise, you don’t have a country. You don’t have a country, if people can just pour into the country illegally, you don’t have a country, but I would expedite the system.”
Trump elaborated that he would give these illegal immigrants, “Legal status,” not citizenship, but, “later down the line, who knows what’s going to happen.” He clarified that this meant citizenship would be “something I would think about, but I would say right now no. I’m not open to it. I would say legal status.”
When asked what he would do with DREAMers, Trump answered, “We’re going to something. I’ve been giving it so much thought, you know you have a — on a humanitarian basis, you have a lot of deep thought going into this, believe me. I actually have a big heart. … I mean, a lot of people don’t understand that, but the DREAMers, it’s a tough situation, we’re going to do something, and one of the things we’re going to do is expedite — when somebody’s terrific, we want them back here, but they have to be legally –.”
He was then asked if DREAMers should have to leave the country first as well, he stated, “They’re with their parents, it depends. But, look, it sounds cold, and it sounds hard. But, we have a country, our country’s going to hell. We have to have a system where people are legally in our country.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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