Trump reads 1952 immigration law at Florida rally

(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images)

last updated 19 February 2017

After addressing his economic agenda, President Trump turned to matters of crime and drugs at his campaign-style rally in Florida on Saturday. He pledged to "destroy transnational criminal cartels which are all over the United States" and "stop the drugs from" entering American communities and "poisoning our youth."

From there Trump transitioned seamlessly to immigration and national security, pledging to support U.S. veterans and "rebuild" the military. "I've ordered the construction of a great border wall which will start very shortly," he said, "and I've taken decisive action to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country."

On the subject of his suspended immigration executive order — twice defeated in court and currently in legal limbo — Trump argued that the court rulings do not cite the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 because if they were to do so, it would become evident that his order is legally justified. He read a portion of the law in support of his case and promised new action on the matter soon. "I listened to these judges talk and talk and talk. So unfair," Trump said. "So we'll be doing something in the next couple of days. We don't give up. We never give up."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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