Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump argued that people born in the US to illegal immigrants aren’t US citizens and that the US should make it easier for legal immigrants to come and work in the US on Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor.”
Trump was asked if he believes his immigration plan will hurt the GOP’s general election chances. He answered, “We have to bring our country back, Bill, we’re in big trouble. We’re losing so much. We’re losing so much to so many, and we have to bring our country back. We have at least 11 million illegals in the country, not only the jobs they’re taking, but everything else. And you know about the crime wave, because, I think probably nobody has covered the crime wave better than you. There is a literal crime wave going on. … we’ve spent last year $113 billion on illegal immigrants. We have to do something about it, and we have to start by building a wall, a big, beautiful, powerful wall. It can have a gate. It can have a door. We’ll let people in legally, but we have to stop what’s happening to our country because we’re losing our country.”
Host Bill O’Reilly then argued that while he supports the wall, “then you say we have to have mass deportations, that’s not going to happen. Because the 14th Amendment says if you’re born here, you’re an American, and you can’t kick Americans out. And then, if you wanted to deport the people already here, each and every one are entitled to due process, and it would take decades to do that, and gazillions of dollars, and the courts’d block you at every turn. You must know all that.”
Trump responded, “I think you’re wrong about the 14th Amendment, and frankly, the whole thing with anchor babies, and the concept of anchor babies, I don’t think you are right about that. … there are many lawyers, many lawyers are saying that’s not the way it is in terms of this. What happens is, they’re in Mexico, they’re going to have a baby, they move over here for a couple of days, they have the baby. … Now, it’s going to have to be tested, but they say it’s not going to hold up in court. Regardless, when people are illegally in the country, they have to go. Now, the good ones, and there are plenty of good ones, we’ll work it so it’s expedited, we can expedite it, where they come back in, but they come back legally. Bill, we have a country. You need borders, and you need laws. We have no law.”
O’Reilly responded, “For decades, I’ve been saying that, but you are not going to be able to deport people who have American citizenship now, and the federal courts will never allow mass deportations without due process for each and every one. And do you envision federal police kicking, in the doors in barrios around the country, dragging families out, and putting them on a bus? Do you envision that?”
Trump said, “I don’t think they have American citizenship. And if you speak to some very, very good lawyers. And I know some would disagree. But, many agree of them with me, you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship. We have to start a process where we take back our country. Our country is going to hell. We have to start a process, Bill, where we take back our country.”
Trump added that amending the Constitution would take too long, and he would rather test this out via the courts.
O’Reilly then said, “Now, the Wall Street Journal basically says, ‘Look, in the fields of California there [is] food rotting, because we can’t get Americans to go in at $17 an hour plus benefits, by the way, and pick the fruit and pick the vegetables in California. So, you need the illegal labor in there. I don’t think you need illegal labor. I think you need legal labor. And I would make it much more — much easier to get legal people in here to do that work, if they want it.” Trump responded, “I agree with that.”
Trump was then asked if he would alienate Hispanic voters. He said, “So, in Nevada they just did a poll, I’m leading in every state, virtually every state that they’ve polled. And in Nevada, they just did a major poll, where I’m not only leading by big numbers, but I also won the Hispanic vote. And I’ve been saying I’m going to win the Hispanic vote. And the reason I’m going to is I’m going to bring jobs back. I’m going to bring jobs back from China, from Japan, from all of these places, including Mexico by the way, which is really taking advantage of the United States, both on the border, and from the standpoint of trade. So, I’ll be bringing jobs back Bill. Nobody else can do it like me. In fact, in the same poll, they had me blowing away the competition when it comes to the economy, which is a very big factor.”
Trump also argued he could do well with Independent voters, stating, “Well, if you look what happened last time with Romney, they say he didn’t do well with the Hispanics. But the truth is, he didn’t do well with the Republicans. They sat home, and they didn’t go out and vote. They had no incentive to vote. If you look at the polls that are coming out on me, they have a great incentive to vote. They like what I say, I think they like me, in a certain way, which is nice. It’s always nice to be liked. But, they have a great incentive to come out and vote for me, because we’re going to make America great again. Romney never said that, and unfortunately, tremendous — millions and millions of people sat home, Bill, and didn’t vote. They will come out and vote. We’re going to energize the base.”
The interview concluded with O’Reilly asking Trump if the interview was “fair,” to which Trump said that O’Reilly was “very fair.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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