In what seems to be a major shift in his immigration policy, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested during a Fox News interview that aired Wednesday night that he’s open to a pathway to legalization for certain illegal immigrants.
Speaking to Sean Hannity of Fox News, Trump reiterated his opposition to “amnesty” but seemed to advocate for letting law-abiding illegal immigrants who have been in the country for a long time pay a fine so they can remain in the country.
“No citizenship,” Trump said. “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.”
Trump said illegal immigrants who have committed crimes should be deported.
“Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out,” he said. “But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject, and I’ve had 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 a 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.”
Throughout the campaign, Trump has staked out a tough position on the issue of illegal immigration. He has vowed to build a wall along the Mexico border and enforce current immigration laws on the books as a way to decrease illegal immigration.
Aides to two of Trump’s Republican primaries — who were attacked for being weak on illegal immigration — argued Wednesday that Trump was now adopting their candidate’s position.
“This is basically Jeb’s position,” former Jeb Bush spokesman Tim Miller said Wednesday.
“Who needs a policy shop when they can just flip and take @JohnKasich positions,” tweeted John Weaver, who ran Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s campaign.
There has been interest in Trump’s stance on what to do with the more than 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country since the Republican said there could be a “softening” in his position.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign has reacted to Trump’s immigration comments by saying they don’t believe him. On Sunday, Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta said they believe Trump’s “immigration plan remains the same as it’s always been: tear apart families and deport 16 million people from the United States.”