The Republican nominee abandoned any pretense of softening his stance on immigration during a fiery address in Phoenix, Arizona, vowing to deport immigrants in the US illegally “because that’s what it means to have laws and a country”. Trump vowed to add 5,000 border control agents and confirmed he would build a wall with Mexico and deport millions during his “first hour in office”. Trump’s tone contrasted sharply with a conciliatory position he offered earlier that day at a meeting in Mexico City with President Enrique Peña Nieto, at which he described the president’s countrymen as “amazing people”. Peña Nieto said he had made clear it clear that Mexico would not pay for a border wall despite Trump’s statement at a press conference after the meeting that the two did not discuss it. Trump’s hardline stance in Phoenix delighted core supporters and dismayed his few remaining Latino allies.
JAMES HOHMANN, WASHINGTON POST [Condensed]
Immigration is a losing issue for Donald Trump, and he’s just spent two weeks talking about it almost every day. After telegraphing repeatedly that he would embrace a more politically palatable position, the Republican nominee used a much-ballyhooed speech in Phoenix last night to make clear that there will be no softening whatsoever. In some key ways, he even hardened his position.
Republicans facing four more years in the wilderness will long recall the raucous rally in Phoenix as a low point of the Trump campaign, perhaps even as the moment that he definitively extinguished his hopes of becoming president.
That feeling will be particularly pronounced because it came at the end of a whirlwind day that might otherwise have been remembered as a [success.]
Many political professionals from both parties privately believed Trump’s trip to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto was a [shrewd move], that made Trump look serious and presidential on a global stage. Rightly or wrongly, even some critics believed that the billionaire projected pragmatism and showed that he could be effective at cutting deals.
But then came Phoenix. In case you missed it, here’s a recap of what Trump said:
- He declared that he will build a “Great Wall.” (“On day one, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall.”)
- He insisted “Mexico will pay” for it: “One-hundred percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall.”
- He suggested that he’d like to deport his opponent.“Maybe they’ll be able to deport her.”
- He said Dwight Eisenhower’s “Operation Wetback” did not go far enough. (He name-checked Ike but did not say what the strategy was called.)
- He reiterated that he will indeed create “a deportation task force” and promised to deport two million “criminal aliens” starting on “day one.”
- He said undocumented immigrants seeking legal status would first have to leave the country and try to return lawfully. “There will be no amnesty,” he said. “You cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country. Can't do it. ... Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation." He did not use the term "self-deportation," but that's exactly what he called for: "You can call it ‘deport’ if you want. The press doesn't like that term. You can call it whatever the hell you want."
- He claimed “countless Americans” are “victims of violence” by illegal immigrants who are “dangerous, dangerous, dangerous criminals”: “We will issue detainers for illegal immigrants arrested for any crime whatsoever.”
- He said government has “no idea” how many undocumented immigrants are on U.S. soil: “It could be 30 million.”
- “We also have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. Sometimes it's just not going to work out. It's our right, as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us.”
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An angry attendee at Trump's speech gets in the face of a journalist after the event. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)
Bottom line: The deportation priorities Trump laid out in Phoenix could target more than SIX MILLION individuals for IMMEDIATE REMOVAL, according to a thorough analysis by Jose DelReal. “He not only called for removing all undocumented immigrants who had committed crimes, but also said he would prioritize those who have overstayed their visas for deportation. … An estimated 690,000 undocumented immigrants have committed significant crimes that would make them security priorities — felonies or serious misdemeanors — according to a study by the Migration Policy Institute. That number is closer to 2 million according to some, the Center for Immigration Studies, whom the Trump campaign has consulted on the issue. If visa overstays are also included in the immediate priorities, as Trump said … the number would grow by about 4.5 million individuals … In all, the number of individuals prioritized for removal by ICE agents would range between about 5.0 and 6.5 million.”
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-- Trump’s speech will make it even harder for him to make inroads with voters he needs in November. Most Americans disagree with his approach. A fresh Fox News poll finds that voters, when presented with a choice, back setting up a system for illegal immigrants currently working in the United States to become legal residents over deporting them by a 77-19 margin. Those supporting legalization back Clinton over Trump by 18 points.
This is bigger than one election: Trump is causing massive LONG-TERM damage to the Republican brand.We’re not focusing on it right now because we’re 68 days out from an election, but it is hard to overstate what an unmitigated disaster this is for the party in the Sunbelt, the intermountain West and beyond. As I’ve explained before, Trump in 2016 is to the national GOP what Proposition 187 was to the California GOP in 1994.
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| Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto get in position for a joint press conference in Mexico City. (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images) |
Why was Trump’s tone so much different in Mexico City than Phoenix?
Trump is so desperate that he’s willing to try everything.Dana Milbank writes that the trip to Mexico was a “HAIL MARIA,” and only someone who was losing would try it.
There are conflicting accounts of Trump’s private meeting with Mexico’s president: Trump said at a joint news conference that he and Peña Nieto didn’t discuss who would pay for the wall. Peña Nieto replied later on Twitter: “At the beginning of the conversation … I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.” Trump spokesman Jason Miller responded with an opaque statement that said “it is unsurprising that they hold two different views on this issue, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.” Peña Nieto spokesman Eduardo Sanchez, asked for clarification, said the president told Trump, “Mexico won’t pay for the wall,” but that Trump did not respond.
And there were several inaccurate claims in Trump’s Phoenix speech, via fact checkers Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Glenn Kessler:
- Trump’s claim that “illegal immigration costs our country more than $113 billion a year” comes from a dubious report by FAIR, an interest group that wants to dramatically curtail legal immigration.
- Trump falsely says Clinton’s plan will provide Social Security to illegal immigrants.
- He repeated the falsehood that Clinton plans to bring in 620,000 new refugees from Syria.
- Trump lauded two Department of Homeland Security programs that have been widely scrutinized, and it’s questionable how effective they are.
- The vast majority of unauthorized immigrants do not fit Trump’s description of aggravated felons, whose crimes include murder. U.S. Sentencing Commission data show homicides are a small percentage of the crimes committed by noncitizens, whether they are in the U.S. illegally or not.
- Illegal immigration flows across the Southern border in fiscal 2015 were at the lowest levels since 1972, except for in 2011.
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Isis leader confirmed killed
The Islamic State news agency reports that spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was killed “surveying operations” in Aleppo. Adnani was one of Islamic State’s longest-serving and most prominent leaders and his loss is considered a significant blow to the terror group. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said coalition forces had conducted an airstrike in the town of al-Bab in Aleppo province on Tuesday targeting Adnani, but did not say whether he had been killed. Very few members of the original leadership remain alive.