Hours after hard-line speech, Trump says 'there's softening' in his immigration plan

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

On Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump traveled to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto and discuss his proposals for reforming the U.S. immigration system. After a campaign spent spouting forceful rhetoric against immigrants — and those from Mexico in particular — Trump appeared subdued next to Peña Nieto, and at a joint press conference he said that he felt a "tremendous feeling" toward Mexican-Americans. While both men "recognize the right of either country to build a physical" border wall, Trump said, the issue of who would pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — the central tenet of Trump's hard-line immigration policy — was not discussed.

Then, Trump hopped on a plane and flew back over that much-discussed border, landing in Arizona and apparently leaving the rhetoric of mutual respect behind him. "I am going to create a new special deportation task force," Trump said in a half-rally, half-policy speech appearance in Phoenix. He also reverted to his campaign promise to round up and deport 11 million illegal immigrants: "Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Explore More

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Explore your latest briefing

Explore your latest briefing