Speaking during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Tuesday, March 2, former President Donald Trump made a massive pledge about how he would handle illegal immigration. Particularly, he pledged that he would launch the largest deportation effort in American history, whether the countries of origin want the illegal immigrants or not.
As background, President Obrador of Mexico said that his country would only cooperate with the American migration-control effort, including stopping migrants from crossing into the United States, if it met his demands of American cooperation with Latin America. Those demands included $20 billion in aid payments each year and some form of amnesty for illegal immigrants in the United States already. President Obrador has also said that Mexico will not take back those citizens of it that illegally immigrated to the United States.
Former President Trump, in his campaign rhetoric, at least, said that the illegal immigrants “have to go back.” Beginning with a promise, he said, “When I’m president, instead of asking you to cram illegal aliens into your homes, I’ll tell you that the illegal alien trespassers … they must go back to their homes, they have to go back.”
Continuing, Trump referred to the massive inflow of migrants as an “invasion,” arguing that no country, much less one already struggling under a debt burden as large as America’s, could manage to withstand such a massive “invasion.” Further, he commented on the ill-effects of the illegal immigration, saying that it is “wrecking” America and “our civilization.”
He said, “Because no country, no country can withstand this invasion.” He added, “There isn’t a country in the world that can… I don’t care how much money – and we don’t, we owe $34 trillion. There’s no country in the world who could withstand the cost of this, and maybe be more important than actual dollar cost, the cost that it’s doing it’s wrecking our civilization, it’s destroying our country.”
Building on those comments, Trump vowed to fix the civilization-wrecking problem by both securing the border and launching a massive deportation operation to return the illegal immigrants already here to their home countries. He said that such a deportation operation would be the largest of its kind in American history.
Further, Trump pushed back on the claim from the President of Mexico that Mexico would not take back its illegal immigrants, saying that whatever the countries of origin want or think about the situation, they will be taking back their citizens, as he will be sending them back as part of the large deportation operation.
Making those pledges, Trump said, “On day one I will seal the border and we’ll begin the largest domestic deportation operation in the history of our country. And if other countries say they won’t take them back ‘We’re not going to take them back.’ I will say that… uhhhh, yeah here they come. You’re just going to hold on, hold on to your britches, ’cause here they come. They’re coming back. Congratulations.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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