Hours after meeting with the President of Mexico, Donald Trump told a cheering campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona that he would go forward with his plans to build a wall along the southern border, vowing if elected, to immediately remove criminal illegal aliens and force others to go back to their home country.
"We will break the cycle of amnesty and illegal immigration," Trump said to cheers, as he declared, "There will be no amnesty."
"You cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country," Trump added.
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
After giving hints in interviews last week that he was "softening" his views on what to do on illegal immigration, Trump's speech in Phoenix was seen by backers as a ringing endorsement of his previous campaign arguments for tough action.
In his over hour long speech, Trump seemed to snuff out any talk that he was going to go easy on immigrants - even law-abiding ones - who were in the United States illegally.
"Remember, under a Trump Administration, it's called America First," Trump said to cheers.
In his speech, Trump outlined a ten point plan to deal with immigration:
1 - Build a border wall
2 - Do not 'catch and release' illegal aliens
3 - Immediately deport criminal aliens
4 - Block federal money for sanctuary cities
5 - Repeal the Obama executive actions on immigration
6 - "Extreme vetting" of legal immigration applicants
7 - Require countries to take back criminal immigrants
8 - Move ahead with biometric entry/exit visa program
9 - Improved efforts to make sure American businesses aren't hiring illegal aliens
10- lower levels of legal immigration
While the President of Mexico said a few hours earlier that he had rejected Trump's talk of making Mexico pay for a border wall - Trump wasn't hearing that.
"Mexico will pay for the wall. A Hundred percent. They don't know it yet," Trump said to cheers, as several times he referred to it as a "Great Wall."
"Let's fix this horrible, horrible, problem."
The reaction from Democrats in Congress was one of outrage.
You can read the prepared text of the Trump speech here.
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