President-elect Donald Trump recently sat down with MSNBC’s Kristin Welker for a contentious interview on “Meet the Press. ” The two discussed a wide range of topics. In particular, Welker probed Trump on his immigration plans, questioning whether he truly intended to carry out mass deportations of everyone who crossed the border illegally.
Broaching the topic, Welker asked the incoming president, “Let’s talk about mass deportation, one of your big agenda items. You’ve talked about prioritizing people who have criminal histories, correct? But is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years?” Trump responded, “I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard … it’s a very tough thing to do.”
Emphasizing the rule of law and being fair to those seeking pathways to legal immigration. Trump continued, “But you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws that came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been in line for 10 years to come into the country. And we’re going to make it very easy for people to come in, in terms of, they have to pass the test.”
Furthermore, Trump pointed out that the country cannot allow criminals to flow over the southern border completely unvetted. “They can’t come out of prisons. We don’t want people that are in for murder. So we had — different estimates, 13,099 murders released into our country over the last three years. They’re walking down the streets. They’re walking next to you and your family,” he said, highlighting the consequences of a porous southern border.
Trump emphasized to Welker that his administration would first focus on removing criminals from the country. “We have to get the criminals out of our country. We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution no matter what country it is. Do you know that Venezuela, their prisons are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they’ve ever been? They’re taking their people out of those prisons by the 1000s,” he said.
The president-elect continued, “At number one, we’re doing criminals, and we’re going to do them really rapidly. We’re getting the worst gang, probably with MS 13, and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world, that vicious, violent people. And you see what they’ve done in Colorado and other places. They’re taking over, literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don’t care. They couldn’t they just are taking the real estate.”
Dismissing Welker’s pushback on the complicated logistics of carrying out mass deportations on such a large scale, Trump continued, “First of all, it’s costing us a fortune, but we’re starting with the criminals, and we’ve got to do it. And then we’re starting with others, and we’re going to see how it goes.” Welker then asked Trump’s stance on Dreamers, those who had been brought to the country illegally at a young age, but have grown up as Americans.
Trump indicated he plans on “doing something” about the Dreamers, suggesting that he would work with Democrats on coming to a substantive resolution. Upon Welker attempting to clarify what that exactly entails, Trump insinuated that he hopes they will be able to remain in the United States. Watch a clip from the interview below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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