Trump firm on deportations

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump linked illegal immigration and employment on Saturday, pledging to start deporting offenders as soon as he is sworn in should he become the White House’s next occupant.

“On day one, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country — including removing the hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants that have been released into US communities under the Obama-Clinton administration,” Mr Trump told supporters in Des Moines, Iowa.

“I am going to build a great border wall, institute nationwide e-verify, stop illegal immigrants from accessing welfare and entitlements and develop an exit-entry tracking system to ensure those who overstay their visas are quickly removed,” Mr Trump warned.

Details of Mr Trump’s immigration policies remain scant. He rallied much of his primary support with a controversial hardline tone against illegal immigrants.

Mr Trump also claimed that the shooting of basketball star Dwyane Wade’s cousin will make African Americans support him.

Hours before, Mr Trump had tweeted: “Dwayne Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago.”

“Just what I have been saying. AfricanAmericans will VOTE TRUMP!”

He was referring to the shooting death on Friday of Nykea Aldridge during an exchange of gunfire between two men as she pushed a baby stroller in Chicago.

Mr Trump’s comments unleashed a torrent of criticism spearheaded by actor Don Cheadle, denouncing him for trying to score political points on the back of a murder. “He doesn’t give a fkk. More red meat to his alt-right troglodytes,” Cheadle wrote on Twitter, referring to a movement largely seen as white supremacist and antiSemitic. Cheadle lambasted him for being “like a Shakespearean farce except it could end in a mushroom cloud”.

The next president will be sworn in on Jan 20.