Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appears to be weighing a sharp reversal on one of the centrepiece policies of his campaign that would allow illegal immigrants to remain in the US.
Seen as part of the candidate’s recent efforts to woo important Hispanic voters alienated by his anti-immigrant proposals amid falling poll numbers, the New York businessman floated the idea of giving immigrants living illegally in the US the chance to obtain legal status to stay in the country.
Mr Trump said he was open to “softening” his immigration policies, but said that there would be “no citizenship” for undocumented immigrants.
He was speaking in Austin, Texas, during a televised townhall-style interview with right-wing pundit Sean Hannity broadcast on Fox News on Wednesday night.
“Let me go a step further: they’ll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them. Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out.”
The property developer had previously planned to set up a “deportation force” that would round up the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants, including thousands of Irish.
Complained
Explaining his shift in position, Mr Trump said that he was moved by people he had met on the campaign who complained about his proposals.
“I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject, and I’ve heard very strong people come up to me – really great, great people come up to me – and they’ve said, ‘Mr Trump, I love you but to take person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years, and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough, Mr Trump.’ I have it all the time. It’s a very, very hard thing.”
In an unusual move, the reality TV star canvassed the views of the television audience by asking them to shout out their approval for throwing out illegal immigrants or working with them.
The businessman is not reneging on his plan to build a wall along the US border with Mexico aimed at stopping migrants from entering the country illegally.
Cheers
“I think the height could be 35 to 45 feet. That’s a good height,” he said to cheers, taking his inspiration from the Great Wall of
China
.
The changed position that Mr Trump seems to be moving to is similar to the policies proposed by his one-time rivals, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and US senator Marco Rubio, whom he chided in the Republican primary for being "soft" on immigration.
Democratic rival Hillary Clinton dismissed Mr Trump's apparent change of heart, telling CNN that his new policies were part of a "shuffle" and his "third different position" on the issue.
“Somebody has told him – I guess, the latest people he’s consulting – how damaging his statements have been, how terrible his deportation plan is, how offensive his views on immigrants have been from the very first day of his campaign,” he said.
Mr Trump, who changed his campaign team last week, has called Mexican immigrants rapists, and criminals, targeted a Hispanic judge in a civil case against him because his parents were Mexican and thrown a Hispanic-American journalist out of one of his press conferences.
