Donald Trump is expected to come down hard during part two of his Austin, Texas, town hall Wednesday night against those who have claimed his immigration stances have started to resemble amnesty.
In an interview taped Tuesday, the Republican nominee told Fox News host Sean Hannity he was open to "softening" immigration views, but did not specify what he meant. The segment set to air Wednesday showcases a polarizing statement on whether he would allow exceptions for otherwise law-abiding illegal aliens.
"No citizenship. Let me go a step further — they'll pay back-taxes, they have to pay taxes, there's no amnesty, as such, there's no amnesty, but we work with them. Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out," Trump said. "But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject, and I've had very strong people come up to me, really great, great people come up to me, and they've said, 'Mr. Trump, I love you, but to take a person who's been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it's so tough, Mr. Trump,' I have it all the time! It's a very, very hard thing."
One of the methods criminal illegal aliens have been able to stay in the U.S. despite being arrested for various crimes is because more than 300 cities' law enforcement officers will not hold criminal aliens for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick up. Instead, criminal aliens are let out back on to the street.
"We got to get rid of the sanctuary cities, we're protecting these people. We're protecting criminals. And the police, who are phenomenal people, they're at a point where they almost give up. They catch them, they have them, they know they did it and then they know nothing is going to happen," Trump said. "You know, OK, so if you're a killer and you're in this country, they go after you big league and it's tough. If you're a killer and you're an illegal immigrant, the police don't know what to do."