GOP front-runner Donald Trump continued to talk about his push to deport nearly 12 million illegal immigration Thursday, saying it’s not “mean-spirited,” but rather a matter of “business.”
In an interview with Fox News, Trump told “Special Report” host Bret Baier doubled down on his call for a “deportation force,” which he made Wednesday, saying the immigrants living in the country illegally need to go in a “humane” and “professional” way.
“It’s basically quite simple, but it’s going to be done in a very humane fashion. People will have to go out. They are illegal immigrants. They came in illegally. They have to go out, and they have to come back legally,” Trump told the host. “Bret, there will be a deportation, and hopefully they’ll be able to come back into the country.”
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Trump added to Baier that the logistics and cost of the mass deportations would not be a problem “if it’s managed properly.”
The Fox News political anchor went on to press the 2016 outsider over remarks from 2012 in which he criticized Mitt Romney’s self-deportation comment, calling it “crazy” and “mean-spirited.” Trump argued that his plan is different from Romney’s because the 2012 GOP nominee’s plan “didn’t work at all.”
“No, I don’t think it’s mean-spirited. Mine is not mean-spirited,” Trump said. “Mine is business.”
“We have a country — you don’t have a country if people are allowed to walk in, cross the border and stay here as long as they want. You don’t have a country, and everybody knows it,” Trump said, adding that another 2016 hopeful he declined to name told him he was right on the issue. “Everybody knows I’m right.”
“I’m saying this: It will be done in a humane way. It’ll be done professionally,” Trump said, repeating again that those deported will be able to come back into the country legally.
The real estate mogul went on to tell the host that, overall, legal immigration is “a good thing.”
While Trump continues to lead in the latest RealClearPolitics average, he sits third in the Washington Examiner‘s most recent power rankings.
