GOP frontrunner Donald Trump doubled down on his immigration plan with 60 Minutes’s Scott Pelley, who said Trump’s plan to deport roughly 11 million illegal immigrants isn’t practical. Trump said he will round up the illegal immigrants in a “humane way” and his plan is “practical” and “will work.”
Pelley asked Trump what he plans to do with the 11 or 12 million illegal immigrants that are in the country.
Trump answerd, “If they’ve done well, they’re going out and they’re coming back in legally.” Pelley interrupted, challenging, “You’re rounding them all up.”
Trump doubled down on his plan and told Pelley, “We’re rounding them up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And they’re going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesn’t sound nice. But not everything is nice.”
Pelley challenged Trump, saying that his plan doesn’t seem practical.
“It is practical,” Trump responded. “It’s going to work.”
He continued, “They have to come here legally. And you know, when I talk about the wall, and I said it before, we’re going to have a tremendous, beautiful, wide open door. Nice big door. We want people to come into the country.”
According to a Gallup poll conducted last month, roughly 31 percent of Republicans support deportation:
At 80%, Democrats overwhelmingly favor allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. and to have an opportunity to become citizens. Republicans are far less likely to support a path to citizenship, at 50%, but that is still the most common view among this group. Thirty-one percent of Republicans want to see all illegal immigrants deported, while 18% favor allowing them to stay for a limited time to work.
Before discussing his plan to deport the illegal immigrants, Trump explained to Pelley that he will build a wall along the southern border.
“We’re going to build a wall and we’re going to create a border. It’s going to be a great wall and it’s not going to be very expensive.”
Pelley asked Trump how he plans to build the wall.
“It’s called management,” Trump fires back. “It will be a real wall. It’ll be a wall that works. It’ll actually be a wall that will look good, believe it or not. Because what they have now is a joke. They’re—they’re ugly, little, and don’t work.”
“You know, the problem with a lot of these ideas is that the President of the United States is not the CEO of America,” Pelley challenged.
Trump agreed, “That’s right.”
“The constitution is going to tell you no,” Pelley stated, adding that Congress and the Supreme Court will also tell Trump “no.”
“We’ll see,” Trump replied.
“And you’re not used to working in an environment like that,” Pelley stated.
“Look—I do it all the time,” Trump responded.
Pelley asked, “Who tells you no?”
“I do it all the time. Not that many people—I do it all the time. And I deal with governments all the time. I have, overseas, I have vast holdings overseas,” Trump stated.