Trump’s “New” Plan
Just hours after trying to make “nice-nice” with Mexico’s president, Donald Trump made it clear — again — on Wednesday night that he doesn’t like illegal immigrants.
Trump told an adoring crowd in Phoenix that he’d remove millions of people living in the United States illegally if he becomes president. He said that failure to do so would jeopardize “the well-being of the American people.”
Trump said that immigrants who are in the country illegally — and who wish to seek legal status or citizenship — must return to their home countries in order to do so. He also said he’d create a special task force that would facilitate the deportation of criminals, people who overstay their visas and other security threats.
“Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation,” Trump said. “There will be no amnesty.”
And Trump told the Phoenix crowd that Mexico will pay for the wall he has promised to build between that country and the United States.
Trump’s continuing hard line on immigrants is sure to play well with his core supporters, who tend to be poorly educated white men who feel aggrieved over the country’s economic and cultural shifts. And it surely will play well with those fanatical radio talk-show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, who have backed Trump to the hilt and spend almost all of their daily shows, bashing Hillary Clinton and seeking to de-legitimize her as a possible president.
How well Trump’s stance resonates with the American public remains to be seen. There is no question that the United States is deeply divided — that neither the political left or the political right wants to compromise on any issue. Whoever wins the presidential election is, therefore, likely to fail as president because the “other side” will vow never to work with him or her.
Yes, either Trump or Clinton will win the White House — but the United States will be the loser.