Mere hours after his surprise trip to Mexico, Donald Trump gave a speech about immigration to a riled-up audience in Phoenix, Arizona. In contrast to the moderate, statesmanlike stance he portrayed on his international trip, the speech was filled fiery rhetoric about deportation and "tak[ing] our country back."
One of the GOP candidate's primary points was that his frequent foe the media is emphasizing the wrong things when it comes to immigration.
“Anyone who tells you that the core issues is the needs of those living here illegally has simply spent too much time in Washington," he said. "Only the out of touch media elites think the biggest problems facing American society today is that there are 11 illegal immigrants who don’t have legal status.”
Trump offered up a 10-point plan for dealing with undocumented immigrants. The first point? The very same wall that he refused to talk about with Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto earlier that day.
"Mexico will pay for the wall," he said. "100%. They don't know it yet but they're going to pay for the wall."
He also said he would end the protocol unofficially known as catch-and-release, where people in the country illegally are released pending a hearing. That point got a rousing thumbs-up from former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke.
Trump came out strongly against amnesty, and said he would triple the number of immigration officers, creating an "immigration task force." Between all of the ideas he laid out, one reporter said, "he did not leave many undocumented immigrants out of his deportation plans."
Both Trump's supporters and his opponents (including his actual opponent in the election) agreed that his speech proved that his recent tone-softening on immigration was not genuine, and that he was back to making the fight against undocumented immigrants the backbone of his campaign.
