New Trump Campaign Manager: ‘To Be Determined’ on Whether Trump Will Relax Immigration Deportation Policy

Trump said Monday he wants to come up with a "fair but firm answer" on immigration.

By Austin Roscoe Published on August 22, 2016

On Monday Donald Trump told Fox and Friends that he is working with Hispanic leaders to address illegal immigration. He said: “It has to be very firm, but we want to come up with something fair.”

The Republican presidential candidate said he is not flip-flopping on a plan to deport the 11 million people living in the United States illegally.

Donald Trump’s new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union that it is “to be determined” whether Trump’s official immigration policy will include a deportation force.

After rumors began floating around yesterday that Trump was relaxing his position on illegal immigrants, host Dana Bash asked Conway for comment.

“What he supports,” Conway said, “is to make sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs, and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country. And as the weeks unfold, he will lay out the specifics of that plan that he would implement as President of the United States.”

Pressing for further specifics, Bash then asked if Trump still plans to create a deportation force, to which Conway replied, “To be determined.”

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a leading immigration hardliner and prominent Trump backer,was also asked about the GOP presidential nominee’s immigration policy during a Sunday morning appearance on Fox & Friends. Host Tucker Carlson asked the senator if Trump had changed his position, which Sessions denied.

Carlson then asked Sessions if Trump still supports the so-called “touchback idea,” which would require illegal immigrants to be deported and then apply to reenter the states in a legal way.

“Well, I don’t know that he’s formally said that,” Sessions replied, “He’s discussed that, other people have discussed that. … I’m not sure that’s the best solution to the problem, but its one solution.” Sessions, chairs the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Refugees, then recommended that we first “end the lawlessness. … Then you can begin to talk, more appropriately, about what to do with people who have been here a long time.”

Sunday’s comments come after some serious campaign shakeups, as well as a week in which the Republican Presidential nominee seemingly sought to soften his image — including a visit by Trump to flood-ravaged Louisiana.

If Trump has changed his deportation policy, it wouldn’t be the first time he has done so on immigration, an issue that helped skyrocket his campaign to the front of a crowded Republican primary field. After June’s mass shooting in Orlando by a suspected ISIS sympathizer, he walked back his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, saying he wanted policies to focus on nations with greater infiltration by terrorist elements.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Like the article? Share it with your friends! And use our social media pages to join or start the conversation! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, MeWe and Gab.

Inspiration
Military Photo of the Day: Through the Smoke
Tom Sileo
More from The Stream
Connect with Us