Monday, October 24, 2016

Donald Trump on Immigration

I take advantage of H1-B visas; but stop them

Q: Your critics say your campaign platform is inconsistent with how you run your businesses, noting that you've brought in foreign workers instead of hiring Americans. Why should voters trust that you will run the country differently from how you run your businesses?TRUMP: Because nobody knows the system better than me. I know the H-1B. I know the H-2B. Nobody knows it better than me. I'm a businessman. These are laws. These are rules. We're allowed to do it. So I will take advantage of it; they're the laws. But I'm the one that knows how to change it.
Q: So what would you do with H-1B visas?
TRUMP: It's something that I frankly use and I shouldn't be allowed to use it. We shouldn't have it. Very, very bad for workers. And second of all, I think it's very important to say, well, I'm a businessman and I have to do what I have to do. When it's sitting there waiting for you, but it's very bad. It's very bad for our workers and it's unfair for our workers. And we should end it.
Source: 2016 GOP primary debate in Miami , Mar 10, 2016

Let the good ones come back in; that's not amnesty

CRUZ: The people that get forgotten in this debate over immigration are the hardworking men and women of this country, millions of Americans who are losing their jobs. We have always welcomed legal immigrants, but I think it is a mistake to forgive those who break the law to allow them to become U.S. citizens, and that's why I've led the fight against granting citizenship to those here illegally. TRUMP: We have at least 11 million people that came in illegally. They will go out. Some will come back, the best, through a process. They have to come back legally. It may not be a quick process, but I think that's fair. They're going to get in line with other people.
Source: 2016 CNN-Telemundo Republican debate on eve of Texas primary , Feb 25, 2016

No apology for banning Muslims from entering America

Q: Your comments about banning Muslims from entering the country created a firestorm. Is there anything you've heard that makes you want to rethink this position?TRUMP: No. (APPLAUSE) Look, we have to stop with political correctness. We have to get down to creating a country that's not going to have the kind of problems that we've had with people flying planes into the World Trade Centers, with the shootings in California, with all the problems all over the world. We have to find out what's going on [with Muslim immigrants]. I said temporarily. I didn't say permanently. And I have many great Muslim friends. And some of them, I will say, not all, have called me and said, "Donald, thank you very much; you're exposing an unbelievable problem and we have to get to the bottom of it." We have a serious problem. And we can't be the stupid country any more. We're laughed at all over the world.
Source: Fox Business 2016 Republican 2-tier debate , Jan 14, 2016

It's not fear of terrorist refugees; it's reality

It's not fear and terror, it's reality. When I look at the migration, I looked at the line, I said, where are the women? It looked like very few women. Very few children. Strong, powerful men, and people are looking at that and they're saying what's going on? We can't let people come into our country and break our borders.
Source: Fox Business Republican 2-tier debate , Jan 14, 2016

Need to keep database of Muslim refugees

Q: You did stir up a controversy with those comments about a database for all US Muslims--but are you now unequivocally now ruling out a database on all Muslims? TRUMP: No, not at all. I want a database for the refugees that come into the country. We have no idea who these people are. When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don't know if they're ISIS, we don't know if it's a Trojan horse.
And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances. We want to go with watchlists.
Q: Just for the record, though, the statistics do show the majority of the refugees coming in are women and children.
Source: ABC This Week 2015 interview on Syrian Refugee crisis , Nov 22, 2015

We must stop illegal immigration; it hurts us economically

He of the executive order, because nobody wants to listen to him, including the Democrats, so he just goes around signing executive orders. We have to stop illegal immigration. It's hurting us economically. It's hurting us from every standpoint. It's causing tremendous difficulty with respect to drugs and what that does to our inner cities.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015

351,000 criminal illegal aliens in our prisons

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office reported that there were three million arrests that could be attributed to the incarcerated alien population, including tens of thousands of violent criminals. There were 351,000 criminal illegal aliens in our prisons--that number does not include the crime of crossing our borders. It costs us more than a billion dollars a year just to keep these people in prison. I understand that the vast majority of these people are honest, decent, hardworking people who came here to improve their own lives and their children's lives. Nonetheless, illegal immigration has to stop. A country that can't protect its borders isn't a country. We are the only country in the world whose immigration system places the needs of other nations ahead of our own. There is a word to describe people who do that: fools.
Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p. 21-2 , Nov 3, 2015

Cut off federal funds to sanctuary cities

We have to cut off federal grants to sanctuary cities--those places that refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement and actually abet criminal behavior--we have to end them. I repeat, we either are a nation of laws or we're not. We also need to do what is necessary to enforce our visa regulations. People get a visa and come here legally, and when that visa expires, many stay here illegally. If they get caught, nothing happens to them. That's got to change.
Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p. 27 , Nov 3, 2015

I don't care how they come in, if they come in legally

Q: You said about Marco Rubio that he was [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator because he was in favor of the H1B visa.TRUMP: I never said that.
Q: So this was an erroneous article the whole way around? My apologies.
Q [after commercial break]: I found where I read that before. It was from the donaldjtrump.com website and it says, "Mark Zuckerburg's personal senator, Marco Rubio has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities." Are you in favor of H-1Bs or are you opposed to them?
TRUMP: I'm in favor of people coming into this country legally. As far as the visas are concerned, if we need people they have--it's fine. They have to come into this country legally. We have a country of laws. It's fine if they come in, but they have to come in legally.
Source: GOP `Your Money/Your Vote` 2015 CNBC 1st-tier debate , Oct 28, 2015

Syrian refugees are a Trojan Horse

Q: Does the U.S. get involved in making a safe zone for Syrian refugees?TRUMP: I would help them economically, even though we owe $19 trillion. What I won't do is take in 200,000 Syrians who could be ISIS. I have been watching this migration. They're mostly men, and they're strong men. They look like prime-time soldiers. Now, it's probably not true, but where are the women? You see some women. You see some children. But for the most part, I'm looking at these strong men. So, you ask two things. Number one, why aren't they fighting for their country? And, number two, I don't want these people coming over here. Two hundred thousand people? This could be the greatest Trojan horse. This could make the Trojan horse look like peanuts if these people turned out to be a lot of ISIS.
Source: CBS Face the Nation 2015 interview on Syrian Refugee crisis , Oct 11, 2015

Syrian refugee crisis partly our fault; but don't take any

Q: A few weeks back, you said we'd have to take some Syrian refugees in on humanitarian grounds. But just this week you seemed to reverse it. What changed?TRUMP: I saw the migration and it seems like so many men. There aren't that many women or childr It looked like mostly men and they looked like strong men.
Q: Half the refugees are children.
TRUMP: We don't know where they're coming from. We don't know who they are. They could be ISIS. I understand the whole thing with migration. It's a horrible thing. It should have never happened in the first place. We screwed up the Middle East so badly, with breaking up Iraq. We have so destabilized the Middle East. So I said there's no way they come in. If they do come in, if I win for president, they're going out.
Q: Even the kids?
TRUMP: Look, Europe should take some probably, because you have the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar--some of the richest countries and they're not taking any in.
Source: ABC This Week 2015 interview on Syrian Refugee crisis , Oct 4, 2015

We're only country dumb enough for birthright citizenship

Q: You say that babies born in the United States to undocumented immigrants should not any longer get automatic American citizenship; isn't that in the 14th Amendment? TRUMP: The 14th Amendment says very, very clearly to a lot of great legal scholars that it is wrong. It can be corrected with an act of Congress, but probably doesn't even need that. A woman gets pregnant. She's nine months, she walks across the border, she has the baby in the United States, and we take care of the baby for 85 years? I don't think so. Mexico--and almost every other country anywhere in the world--doesn't have that. We're the only ones dumb enough, stupid enough to have it. And this is not just with respect to Mexico--people are coming from Asia to have babies here, and all of a sudden, we have to take care of the babies for the life of the baby. The 14th Amendment [should] go through the Supreme Court, but there are a lot of great legal scholars that say that is not correct.
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015

Illegal immigrants populate many criminal gangs

[First], I want to build a wall. Second of all, we have a lot of really bad dudes in this country from outside. They go, if I get elected. Gangs all over the place. We have a country of laws, they're going to go out, and they'll come back if they deserve to come back. If they've had a bad record, if they've been arrested, if they've been in jail, they're never coming back. Right now, we don't have a country, we don't have a border, and we're going to do something about it.
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015

This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish

We have a country, where, to assimilate, you have to speak English. And I think that where he was, and the way it came out didn't sound right to me. We have to have assimilation--to have a country, we have to have assimilation. I'm not the first one to say this. We've had many people over the years, for many, many years, saying the same thing. This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015

Half of the undocumented residents in America are criminals

What does Donald Trump believe? Immigration: No path to citizenship for undocumented workers. Allow more European immigration and a legal status to those graduating from U.S. colleges. In his January speech to the Iowa Freedom Summit, Trump called for securing the southern border and indicated that he believes half of the undocumented residents in America are criminals. In 2013 at CPAC, the businessman said Republicans should block any path to citizenship or voting status for undocumented immigrants but should expand legal immigration from Europe. In addition, Trump would give a legal status to foreign students who complete a degree at an American university.
Source: PBS News Hour "2016 Candidate Stands" series , Jun 16, 2015

We need strong borders; we need a wall

Trump knocked former Florida governor Jeb Bush, calling him "weak on immigration." Trump specifically mentioned a view Bush espoused in a 2014 Fox News interview that immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border as an "act of love.""We need strong borders. We need a wall," Trump said, addressing his solutions to the immigration issue. "The king of building buildings, the king of building walls--none of them can build them like Donald Trump."
Source: CBS News on 2015 Conservative Political Action Conf. , Feb 27, 2015

Citizenship for illegal immigrants is a GOP suicide mission

Donald Trump said the Republican party will lose elections if it reforms the nation's entitlement programs and will hand Democrats 11 million votes if Congress grants citizenship to illegal immigrants, likening the reform efforts to a "suicide mission." "The fact is 11 million people will be voting Democratic. You can be out front. You can be the spearhead. You can do whatever you want to do, but every one of those 11 million people will be voting Democratic," he said. "It is just the way it works.""You have to be very, very careful, because you could say that to a certain extent the odds aren't looking so great for Republicans, that you are on a suicide mission," he said. "You are just not going to get those votes."
Source: 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. in Washington Times , Mar 15, 2013

351,000 illegal aliens are in our prisons; costing $1.1B

America's prisons house 351,000 criminal aliens who committed a crime after having already broken the law by entering American illegally. Making taxpayers pay for 351,000 criminals who should never have been here in the first place is ridiculous. The annual price tag to incarcerate these thugs is $1.1 billion. And get this: criminal aliens have an average of seven arrests. That's at least seven crimes committed against American citizens by each of these criminals who should never have been allowed to cross our borders. One out of every three federal prison inmates is a Latino, and three quarters of these are here illegally.
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p.136 , Dec 5, 2011

Anchor babies were NEVER the intent of the 14th Amendment

The root cause of all the welfare payments to illegal aliens is the so-called "anchor baby" phenomenon, which is when illegal immigrant mothers have a baby on American soil. The child automatically becomes an American citizen, Though this was NEVER the intention of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states, "All citizens born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside." The clear purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, was to guarantee full citizenship rights to now emancipated former slaves. It was not intended to guarantee untrammeled immigration to the United States.
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p.140-141 , Dec 5, 2011

Invite foreigners graduating from college to stay in US

Our country's leaders are just so plan stupid. As an example, foreign students come over to our colleges, learn everything there is to learn about physics, finance, mathematics, and computers, and graduate with honors. They would love to stay in this country, but we don't allow them to. We immediately ship them back to their country to use all of the knowledge they learned at the best colleges in the United States back in their country rather than keep it here in ours. When we have gifted people in this country we should cherish them and let them stay. But instead we fling our arms wide open to the lowlifes, the criminals, the people who have no intention to contribute to our country.
Wouldn't it be better if we invited foreign student graduating from our colleges to stay to build American companies, instead of foreign companies that will be wreaking havoc against Boeing, Caterpillar, and many other of our great American companies in the future?
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p.145 , Dec 5, 2011

Control borders; even legal immigration should be difficult

America is experiencing serious social and economic difficulty with illegal immigrants who are flooding across our borders. We simply can’t absorb them. It is a scandal when America cannot control its own borders. A liberal policy of immigration may seem to reflect confidence and generosity. But our current laxness toward illegal immigration shows a recklessness and disregard for those who live here legally. The majority of legal immigrants can often make significant contributions to our society because they have special skills and because they add to our nation’s cultural diversity. They come with the best of intentions. But legal immigrants do not and should not enter easily. It’s a long, costly, draining, and often frustrating experience-by design. I say to legal immigrants: Welcome and good luck.
It comes down to this: we must take care of our own people first. Our policy to people born elsewhere should be clear: Enter by the law, or leave.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.143-45 , Jul 2, 2000

Limit new immigration; focus on people already here

Trump was firm concerning restrictions in immigration. “I’m opposed to new people coming in,” he said. “We have to take care of the people who are here.”
Source: nytimes.com/library/politics , Dec 10, 1999

Donald Trump on Mexico

We have no borders; and yes, I am angry

I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our healthcare is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry. And I won't be angry when we fix it, but until we fix it, I'm very angry.
Source: Fox Business Republican 2-tier debate , Jan 14, 2016

Ship millions back to Mexico, like Eisenhower did

Q: Can we just send 5 million people back with no effect on economy?TRUMP: You are going to have to send people out. Look, we either have a country or we don't have a country. We are a country of laws. [Those who entered illegally are] going to have to go out and hopefully they get back. But we have no choice if we're going to run our country properly & if we're going to be a country.
KASICH: If people think that we are going to ship 11 million people who are law-abiding, who are in this country, & somehow pick them up at their house & ship them out to Mexico, think about the families. Think about the children. It's a silly argument. It is not an adult argument. It makes no sense.
TRUMP: Dwight Eisenhower, a great president, moved 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border. They came back. Moved them again beyond the border, they came back. Didn't like it. Moved them way south. They never came back. They moved 1.5 million out. We have no choice.
Source: Fox Business/WSJ First Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015

Walls on borders work; just ask Israel

We are a country of laws. We need borders. We will have a wall [on the Mexican border]. The wall will be built. The wall will be successful. And if you think walls don't work, all you have to do is ask Israel. The wall works, believe me. Properly done. Believe me. [OnTheIssues note: Trump refers to the "separation barrier" that Israel built surrounding the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. It has reduced terrorist attacks, but is controversial in the peace process].
Source: Fox Business/WSJ First Tier debate , Nov 10, 2015

Mexico will pay for wall, but not through tariffs

Q: You haven't told us how you're going to get Mexico to pay for the wall (on US-Mexico border).TRUMP: I'll tell you right now. We have a trade imbalance of $40 billion, $45 billion with Mexico a year. We give Mexico billions of dollars a year. The wall is going to cost $6 billion or $7 billion.
Q: So tariffs?
TRUMP: No, I'm not saying that. I'll get Mexico to pay for it one way or the other. I guarantee you that.
Source: Meet the Press 2015 interview moderated by Chuck Todd , Nov 8, 2015

Building 1,000-mile wall is possible, if we make commitment

Nobody can build a wall like me. I will build a great wall on our southern border. It's probably about 1,000 miles we will need to secure with the new wall. There are people who say it can't be done, that it's not possible to build a wall 1,000 miles long. Except beginning more than 2,000 years ago the Chinese built a wall that eventually stretched almost 13,000 miles that could never be breached. It was a combination of massive walls, impassible trenches and ditches, and rugged natural terrain, as well as an estimated 25,000 watchtowers. Believe me, our wall- building technology has improved a lot in 2,000 years. What we don't have that the Chinese had is the commitment to do it. They understood the danger of leaving their border unprotected and they did something about it. We talk about it and do nothing.
Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p. 23-4 , Nov 3, 2015

I can get Mexico to pay for border wall; politicians can't

Q: You're promising to build a wall and make another country pay for it?TRUMP: Right. We're going to build the wall; we're going to create a border. We're going to let people in, but they're going to come in legally. They are going to come in legally. And it's something that can be done. They built The Great Wall of China. That's 13,000 miles. Here, we actually need 1,000, because we have natural barriers. We can do a wall. We're going to have a big, fat beautiful door right in the middle of the wall. We are going to have people come in, but they are coming in legally. And Mexico is going to pay for the wall, because Mexico--I love the Mexican people, I respect the Mexican leaders, but the leaders are much sharper, smarter and more cunning than our leaders. And people say, "Oh, how are you going to get Mexico to pay?" A politician cannot get them to pay. I can.
Source: GOP `Your Money/Your Vote` 2015 CNBC 1st-tier debate , Oct 28, 2015

The border wall will be well-managed and built correctly

Q: How is a Mexican wall even feasible?TRUMP: I'm telling you, it's called management. You can do this and we can expedite the good immigrants to come back in. And everybody wants that. But they have to come in legally. We have to be a country of laws and borders. We have wonderful Border Patrol people, but they're not allowed to do their job. I will get the best people to build this wall and we will do it properly and we will do it humanely and get the good ones back in.
Source: ABC This Week 2015 interviews of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Aug 23, 2015

We need wall on Mexican border, but ok to have a door in it

Q: You say that the Mexican government is sending criminals--rapists, drug dealers--across the border. TRUMP: If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be talking about illegal immigration. This was not a subject that was on anybody's mind until I brought it up at my announcement. The fact is, since then, many killings, murders, crime, drugs are pouring across the border, our money going out and the drugs coming in. And I said we need to build a wall, and it has to be built quickly. And I don't mind having a big beautiful door in that wall so that people can come into this country legally. But we need to build a wall, we need to keep illegals out.
Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript , Aug 6, 2015

Mexican government is sending criminals across the border

Q: You have repeatedly said that you have evidence that the Mexican government is sending criminals across the border, but you have refused or declined to share it. Could you share your proof? TRUMP: Border Patrol people that I talk to, they say this is what's happening. Because our leaders are stupid. And the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning. And they send the bad ones over because they don't want to pay for them. They don't want to take care of them. Why should they when the stupid leaders of the United States will do it for them? And that's what is happening whether you like it or not.
Source: Fox News/Facebook Top Ten First Tier debate transcript , Aug 6, 2015

Building a wall will save money because it stops bad dudes

Q: Assuming President Trump is able to stop the flow of illegal immigration through building a wall or some parts of a wall, what do you think should be done with the estimated 11 million undocumented workers and their families already here? Would you be open-minded about a path to citizenship? A: First of all--we have to stop it. We can do that with combinations of walls and Border Patrol. And it won't cost the kind of money--in fact, we will save money, because people that are coming in here that shouldn't be coming in here illegally. We have some really bad dudes right here in this country, and we're getting them out and we're sending them back to where they came from. And I don't mean Mexico; they come from all over. We have some real bad ones, and they're in our prisons that we're paying for.
Source: CNN SOTU 2015 interview series: 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jul 26, 2015

OpEd: businesses & Republicans condemn anti-Mexico terms

Trump released a statement restating the controversial comments he made almost three weeks ago when he announced he was running for president: "What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.," Trump's statement said. Trump's comments have resulted in the termination of a number of his business relationships, but it wasn't until the past week that fellow Republican candidates began to forcefully condemn his comments.Former Gov. George Pataki (R-NY) laid out what he calls are "practical" policy solutions for the issue of securing the southern U.S. border, as well as what to do with the millions of illegal immigrants already living in the country. Trump "has tapped into a chord of people who do not want to see millions of people come here illegally, but that does not justify demonizing an entire group of people," said Pataki. .
Source: CNN.com 2015 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jul 6, 2015

Make Mexico pay for wall with severe economics

Q: Why do we need a wall?A: You have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they're bad. I'm talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists.
Q: How exactly are you going to get Mexico to pay for building a wall?
A: You force them because we give Mexico a fortune.
Q: So you would cut off business or impose tariffs unless they built the wall?
A: I would do something very severe unless they contributed or gave us the money to build the wall.
Source: CNN SOTU 2015 interview series: 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jun 28, 2015

Mexico & Latin America send us drugs, crime, and rapists

Mexico is beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they're killing us economically. The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems.When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.
And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting. And it only makes common sense. They're sending us not the right people.
It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably--probably--from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop and it's got to stop fast.
Source: 2015 announcement speeches of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jun 16, 2015

Build great wall on southern border; have Mexico pay for it

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
Source: 2015 announcement speeches of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Jun 16, 2015