Trump offers details on immigration

The New York Times

DES MOINES — Donald J. Trump provided on Saturday a more detailed look at his immigration policy, returning to the issue after a week in which he faced criticism from across the political spectrum for seeming to soften his hard-line position on deporting undocumented immigrants.

In a speech at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, Mr. Trump said he would strengthen the system that allows employers to verify the eligibility of workers, and would create an entryexit tracking system for visas. He also reiterated his promise to cancel “unconstitutional orders” and “executive orders” relating to immigration.

But Mr. Trump largely avoided the question that has caused him trouble this week: what to do about the undocumented immigrants already in the country.

“All the media wants to talk about is the 11 million people, or more, or less — they have no idea what the number is because we have no control over our country, have no idea what it is, that are here illegally,” Mr. Trump said.

His proposals on the employment verification system, known as E-Verify, and on visa tracking, which he said would “ensure those who overstay their visas are quickly removed,” are in line with the approaches put forward by many Republicans, including Jeb Bush and Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, two of Mr. Trump’s chief rivals in the Republican primary race, and Mitt Romney, the party’s nominee in 2012. They were also central to legislation proposed by a bipartisan group of senators in 2013.

Mr. Trump maintained his hard-line approach to undocumented immigrants who have committed violent crimes, promising that “on Day 1, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country.”

But he still declined to clarify whether he would forcibly deport the undocumented immigrants who have been in the country and not committed a crime.