Trump's immigration plan: Mass deportation

Nick Glass
August 17, 2015
Politico

Donald Trump unveiled his immigration policy paper on Sunday, pledging to “[put] the needs of working people first — not wealthy, globetrotting owners” and vowing to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Trump’s three principles of the plan include: “1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border. 2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced. 3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.”

Until Mexico pays for the wall, the United States would, “among other things,” “impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options],” the plan reads.

The plan calls for the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to triple, along with nationwide e-verify, the “mandatory return of all criminal aliens,” “detention-not catch-and-release,” defunding sanctuary cities, enhancing penalties for staying past temporary visas, cooperating with local task forces taking on gangs and ending birthright citizenship.

“The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working class Americans – including immigrants themselves and their children – to earn a middle class wage. Nearly half of all immigrants and their US-born children currently live in or near poverty, including more than 60 percent of Hispanic immigrants,” the plan reads.

Trump gave more details about his immigration plan during a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“We have to keep the families together,” he said of the people in the country illegally, “but they have to go.”

Additionally, Trump’s other proposals include increasing the prevailing wage for H-1B visas, requiring businesses to hire American workers first, ending welfare abuse, creating a jobs program for inner-city youth, creating a “refugee program for American children” without parents and pausing the hiring process before any foreign workers receive green cards so that employers “will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), an immigration hard-liner with whom Trump consulted on the issue, praised it as “exactly the plan American needs.” Sessions, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, said in a statement that “[p]olling shows this plan will appeal broadly to all segments of the electorate: prioritizing the just demands of loyal, everyday Americans who have been shunned by a governing elite.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s fellow GOP candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham slammed his immigration position in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“Our leading contender, Mr. Trump, is going backward on immigration,” Graham remarked. “And I think he’s going to take all of us with him if we don’t watch it.”New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another GOP presidential hopeful, said Monday that simply building a wall would not remedy the situation.

“It can’t be addressed just with a wall. That’s not going to fix the problem,” Christie said on “Fox and Friends.”