Trump's Big Immigration Speech: No Amnesty

“You can’t smuggle in, hunker down, and wait to be legalized.”

9.1.2016

Donald Trump delivered a major speech on immigration Wednesday evening [beginning at 2:03:00 of the video above], in which he dispelled any concerns about a “softening” of his policy, according to Mediaite.

After praising the President of Mexico after their meeting and talking of “my love for the people of Mexico,” Trump gave an impassioned 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.”

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.

He stressed that it is 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 in detail. He 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.”

As for the Wall, about which there had been some 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 they’re gonna pay for it.”

He criticized President Obama and Hillary Clinton for their responsibility for “deadly non-enforcement policies,” promising he would push for things like Kate’s Law and ending sanctuary cities.

Trump also briefly touched on 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 asserted. “You can’t smuggle in, hunker down, and wait to be legalized.”

Near the end of his speech, Trump brought onstage the family members of Americans killed by illegal immigrants and let them speak briefly. One of them said, “If you don’t vote Trump, we won’t have a country.” Now there's a campaign slogan for you.