Donald Trump has for months pledged to forcibly deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. And of late, he and his campaign representatives have repeatedly insisted that
Trump isn’t changing on immigration — at all.
Last week, for example, Trump said he’s actually “hardening” on the issue.
And on Sunday, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway essentially laid out Trump’s “deportation force” force vision, describing a joint local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement effort that would locate undocumented immigrants and “enforce the law.”
Some Trump surrogates refuse to answer questions about the deportation force. But here’s what else they’ve refused to do: They won’t deny that the deportation force remains integral to Trump’s mass-deportation fantasy.
Trump’s made it clear he wants to break up millions of immigrant families, and until he explicitly says otherwise, the only assumption to be made is that the deportation force remains central to his hardline anti-immigrant platform.
As Trump national spokeswoman Katrina Pierson put it last week: all the Trump campaign has done is “[change] the words,” it’s “not a different message.”
Dodging questions about the “deportation force” is a far cry from denying it remains a top Trump priority.
Published: Aug 31, 2016