Donald Trump has made a stern and tough immigration policy a cornerstone of his candidacy for President. From building a wall that Mexico will pay for to deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants in the US to painting all illegal immigrants as rapists and criminals, Donald Trump has taken a very hard line and unwavering stance against illegal immigration in the US.

That seemed to change yesterday as Donald Trump seemed to make some shocking reversals of his immigration policies. He even praised the deportation policies of the Obama administrations telling Bill O’Reilly this:

The first thing we’re gonna do, if and when I win, is we’re gonna get rid of all the bad ones. We have gang members, we have killers, we have a lot of bad people that have to get out of this country…they’re gonna be out of this country so fast your head will spin. We have existing laws that allow you to do that. As far as everybody else, we’re going to go through the process. What people don’t know is that Obama got tremendous numbers of people out of the country. Bush, the same thing. Lots of people were brought out of the country with the existing laws. Well, I’m going to do the same thing.

Trump’s new Hispanic advisors have leaked that there may be a shift in the candidate’s immigration policy, as his new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said that it was “to be determined” whether a President Trump would attempt to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants in the US today.

Though Obama has deported many more illegal immigrants than any President in history, it is still surprising that Trump would praise President Obama for anything, much less parts of his immigration policy. Trump accused Hillary Clinton in his most recent attack ad of supporting “open borders,” but then praises the status quo for having “existing laws that allow you” to deport illegal immigrants.

Trump also said that “we’re going to get rid of all the bad ones,” which is essentially what has been happening for years under Obama. The Obama administration has been cracking down on criminals and gang members, though trying to create a path to citizenship for other law abiding people here without documentation. Trump would probably not endorse that policy.

It seems that through the advisement of his “Hispanic Team” Donald Trump is trying to appeal to some Latino voters by embracing Obama’s status quo of deportation enforcement, despite the vitriol of his rhetoric in the past. It is yet to be seen if this is a permanent policy shift, or a knee jerk response to falling polls. Trump may forget about this change of heart if his poll numbers don’t improve among Hispanics or if some other policy shift catches his eye.

Sources:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/donald-trump-immigration/497021/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/08/23/trump-just-admitted-his-entire-immigration-posture-is-a-big-scam/?utm_term=.a3bf2ffa9d73
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5094814904001/is-donald-trump-changing-his-immigration-vision/?playlist_id=930909812001#sp=show-clips