President Donald Trump clarified his immigration policy on Monday, telling reporters during a press conference at the White House that it remains unchanged.
Alongside Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, Trump said there will be no amnesty, and that his policy of targeting illegal aliens for deportation will continue, including those who might not have violent criminal records.
“Joe Biden allowed 25 million people to come in—of that, 11,888 murderers,” Trump said.
“We want to get the worst of the worst, and then we’ll see what happens, but they came in illegally—many of them have good jobs now, they’re productive, some are even paying taxes, and we’re seeing what’s going to happen. There won’t be amnesty.”
The president’s comments come after his Oct. 8 interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” when he said he believed Republicans and Democrats could formulate a deal together for a legal pathway for certain illegal immigrants.
“In other words, get the killers out, get all the rough ones out, get the drug dealers out, but let the people that are here—and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years—work a deal for them,” Trump said in that interview.
But during the Monday press conference, Trump pushed back on a question about his comment during the “60 Minutes” interview, when he said his deportation policy “might be too tough.”
The president was asked whether the architect of that policy, newly appointed Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, was aware there might be changes coming in light of Trump’s comments.
“No, no. We have a very strong deportation policy,” Trump clarified, later saying, “There won’t be amnesty. Somebody suggested, ‘Will there be amnesty?’ No.”
The president reiterated again that his immigration and deportation policy will not change, with a continued focus on apprehending the “worst of the worst.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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