After praising the President of Mexico after their meeting and talking of “my love for the people of Mexico,” Trump gave a fiery speech on how illegal immigration “serves the needs of wealthy donors, political activists, and powerful, powerful politicians… [and] does not serve you, the American people.”
He said it’s certainly America’s right to “choose immigrants we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us” and laid out his plans for enforcement and deportation step by step.
Prioritizing America and American workers was a significant portion of his speech, pledging to prioritize the needs of working Americans and Americans looking for work over people illegally flocking to the United States.
And yes, despite that brief confusion earlier, Trump declared, “We will build a great wall along the Southern border… and Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent. They don’t know it yet, but
Trump spoke of creating a deportation task force, saying that anyone who’s entered the U.S. illegally “is subject to deportation” because “that is what it means to have laws.”
He repeatedly went after President Obama and Hillary Clinton over their responsibility for “deadly non-enforcement policies,” promising he would push for things like Kate’s Law and sanctuary cities.
Trump also briefly touched upon his plan for “extreme vetting” on ideological grounds to weed out immigrants who believe in sharia law. He referred to “ideological certification” and also said that America should be letting in people based on their “likelihood of success” here because we can’t just “take in anybody” anymore.
“There will be no amnesty,” Trump declared. “You can’t smuggle in, hunker down, and wait to be legalized.”
Before he concluded, Trump brought family members of Americans killed by illegal immigrants on stage and let them speak briefly. One of them said, “If you don’t vote Trump, we won’t have a country.”
Watch the whole thing above (starting at 1:20:00).
[image via screengrab]
— —
Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac