Trump Backed Amnesty For Illegal Aliens Only Last June

[ABX]

Election '16: The centerpiece of GOP front-runner Donald Trump's presidential campaign is his hard-line stance on immigration. But he was for amnesty before he was against it. And it wasn't that long ago.

Trump supporters concerned that unfettered immigration will bring liberalism into permanent dominance over the American electorate and society — and that probably describes most of them — don't know Donald like they think they know Donald.

You don't have to go back far to find a pro-amnesty statement from the No. 1 defender of deportation. At the end of June, speaking to the press in Chicago and after saying he "heard you probably have 30 million" illegal aliens in America, Trump contended:

"You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that. But the bad ones, and there are bad ones, you have to get out, and you have to get them out fast."

That's "path" as in "path to citizenship," not a path to exit the country via our southern border. And it's clear he was referring to the bulk of the millions of aliens. The "bad ones" he would deport he depicts as a minority of the illegals. How small a minority is wide open to speculation.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/121715-785902-trump-backed-amnesty-for-illegals-as-recently-as-june.htm#ixzz3v17rMxix
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

[sinkspur]

If Trump is nominated, in order for him to have a chance, he'd have to champion a path to citizenship.  And, of course, that would piss off his supporters, who would know they'd been had.

I don't think he can do it,though. He's burned all the bridges with Hispanics.  They'll never support him.

[ABX]

If Trump is nominated, in order for him to have a chance, he'd have to champion a path to citizenship.  And, of course, that would piss off his supporters, who would know they'd been had.

I don't think he can do it,though. He's burned all the bridges with Hispanics.  They'll never support him.

I'm sure he'll jump around on issues like he always has. Everything to everyone depending on what he needs to feed his ego.

[Carling]

Nothing in what was posted says that Trump is in favor of amnesty.

We do know that Ricky Rubio is pro-amnesty with his Gang of Eight vote.

[Formerly Once-Ler]

Nothing in what was posted says that Trump is in favor of amnesty.

You are absolutely right except for Trump's quoted words you conveniently ignored.  "You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that.'

Is giving illegals a path not amnesty?  If not what does the Trump quote mean?  Give them a path back to Mexico?  If that is the case why does Trump say"But the bad ones, and there are bad ones, you have to get out, and you have to get them out fast."

The bad ones have to go and the good ones get a path...how would you read that?

[mountaineer]

This why I encourage people to look what he's said in the past few years,  not just the last couple of months.

[ABX]

Nothing in what was posted says that Trump is in favor of amnesty.

We do know that Ricky Rubio is pro-amnesty with his Gang of Eight vote.

"You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that.'


It also is in line with his beliefs he held for years, up until recently when he was actually condemning Romney for being too hard on illegals with his soft approach.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/09/2012-flashback-donald-trump-said-gop-was-too-mean-spirited-towards-illegal-immigrants/

[Carling]

"You have to give them a path, and you have to make it possible for them to succeed. You have to do that.'


It also is in line with his beliefs he held for years, up until recently when he was actually condemning Romney for being too hard on illegals with his soft approach.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/09/2012-flashback-donald-trump-said-gop-was-too-mean-spirited-towards-illegal-immigrants/

I must be missing the word amnesty?

[Scottftlc]

I don't know, maybe I haven't looked hard enough but I've always felt that Trump wanted to create "a path" for legal immigration.  He didn't want carte blanche amnesty and he wanted to place top priority on control of the border - complete control - but I never got any sense that he wanted to stop legal immigration unless it was temporary while the border and the system was corrected.  I have thought that besides the words he uses, that his actual position was very close to that of Ted Cruz.  But maybe I'm missing something.

[Scottftlc]

But this statement was in connection with his comments on the illegal immigrants here. It does not appear he was talking about "a path" for legal immigration.

Well, let me see if I'm following correctly - he's called for a path to citizenship (which process is not described in these short comments) but some are saying that such a call is the same as a call for amnesty?  Is that correct.  I would disagree with that fundamentally.  A path indicates a process that would be developed and implemented over a period of time.  Amnesty, it seems to me, is a sudden declaration of status - it would happen at the stroke of a pen.  A path could mean something that includes significant hurdles to pass in order to be legalized.  And my thought was that this was always what I believed that Trump was calling for.  I may not be following correctly because the original piece appears to be a gotcha attempt to characterize something in a certain way and the comments then run the gamut of various interpretations.

[ABX]

A path for citizenship is the same as amnesty simply because it bypasses the citizenship laws in this country.

Someone who has committed a felony is not eligible for citizenship.

In order to be in the US illegally, one has to commit multiple felonies (with very rare exceptions), from tax fraud, to ID theft/fraud, to document fraud, and more. Each one of these crimes would disqualify one for citizenship.

Providing a path to citizenship requires that these felonies be either forgiven or overlooked. How does one provide any sort of 'path to citizenship' and not provide amnesty for any of these felonies?  Are we just going to overlook these felonies to give that path? What about the victims of these crimes, especially identity theft victims that impact tens of millions of people per year and a high percentage is directly tied to illegal immigration.

Another requirement is to apply for citizenship, one has to be a "lawful permanent resident for 5 years (3 years if married to a US citizen)." Another part of the law that we will have to set aside to provide a 'pathway'.

[Scottftlc]

A path for citizenship is the same as amnesty simply because it bypasses the citizenship laws in this country.

Someone who has committed a felony is not eligible for citizenship.

In order to be in the US illegally, one has to commit multiple felonies (with very rare exceptions), from tax fraud, to ID theft/fraud, to document fraud, and more. Each one of these crimes would disqualify one for citizenship.

Providing a path to citizenship requires that these felonies be either forgiven or overlooked. How does one provide any sort of 'path to citizenship' and not provide amnesty for any of these felonies?  Are we just going to overlook these felonies to give that path? What about the victims of these crimes, especially identity theft victims that impact tens of millions of people per year and a high percentage is directly tied to illegal immigration.

But aren't we, as Chris Christie so fabulously pointed out in the debate, trying to policy-wonk the words here too much?  A Path to Citizenship could certainly require that a person return and go through the process again legally - many have proposed such a thing.  Even then if you must forgive an original felony, that is not the same as a pen stroke amnesty, it could (and should) be done on a specific, individual-by-individual basis.  You wouldn't have to forgive all equally - these are not citizens who must get equal protection.  You could forgive some but not others in order to expedite solving the problem.  So while technically we would be overlooking the violation of certain laws, we would be very specific about who and what would be overlooked.

I think Trump is almost always very unspecific and very loose with terminology and with concepts.  So he gets this kind of brush-back from inside the political profession (a profession he is not part of) - but that is preferable to sounding like a wonk-ish dullard parsing thoughts and ideas so tightly, which as Christie pointed out is most definitely not leadership.  Cruz got caught up in that in the debate, because he is experienced and capable at playing the wonk if he so desires, but that is not best for him, he should step back and stay away from engaging in that (so should Rubio, but I think it is just too much a part of what he is for him to do that).

[ABX]

But aren't we, as Chris Christie so fabulously pointed out in the debate, trying to policy-wonk the words here too much?  A Path to Citizenship could certainly require that a person return and go through the process again legally.....

Except then they would not be eligible to go through the process legally. They will have to return to their home countries then come back and apply for a non-citizen resident status of some sort (H1B, etc) and be a lawful resident for five years. That will be a problem if they were here illegally committing the aforementioned felonies as they would have to lie on their residency application (fraud again) about being a prior resident or committing felonies.

It seems like one of those heart felt, feel good things to say 'let them return and come back legally' but they won't be able to do the latter without committing even further fraud.

..and what about the victims of identity theft, where is their justice if we overlook the fraud committed against them?

There is no easy answer. 'Deport them all' or 'grant them a path' are both as unrealistic.

[Scottftlc]

Except then they would not be eligible to go through the process legally. They will have to return to their home countries then come back and apply for a non-citizen resident status of some sort (H1B, etc) and be a lawful resident for five years. That will be a problem if they were here illegally committing the aforementioned felonies as they would have to lie on their residency application (fraud again) about being a prior resident or committing felonies.

We could set up a separate process with different application forms for this cohort - that might not be a bad thing to do, then no one would need to lie, it could be created specifically for this group of people.  It is a tough problem but I think we can come up with something that does not reward stealing into the country, yet, does not prevent people from getting back into line who came here when we were so loose with our own laws.  Of course, given how inefficient our federal government is, it is not likely that they will capably implement a new process - pen stroke amnesty may be the limit of our federal government's ability because they are slipshod at everything they do.

[ABX]

We could set up a separate process with different application forms for this cohort - that might not be a bad thing to do, then no one would need to lie, it could be created specifically for this group of people.  It is a tough problem but I think we can come up with something that does not reward stealing into the country, yet, does not prevent people from getting back into line who came here when we were so loose with our own laws.  Of course, given how inefficient our federal government is, it is not likely that they will capably implement a new process - pen stroke amnesty may be the limit of our federal government's ability because they are slipshod at everything they do.

..and thus we have amnesty because this different application process would require bypassing prior felony restrictions.

[Scottftlc]

..and thus we have amnesty because this different application process would require bypassing prior felony restrictions.

...Or noting them and forgiving some of them individually in one limited time instance.