As was expected, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump readopted his outside-voice as he outlined his immigration policy during a speech in Phoenix on Wednesday night. This after a seemingly diplomatic closed-door meeting and joint news conference with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City just hours prior.
"We ... have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. Sometimes it's just not gonna work out," Trump said, outlining a 10-point-plan to curb illegal immigration. "Then there is the issue of security. Countless innocent American lives have been stolen because our politicians have failed in their duty to secure our borders and enforce our laws like they have to be enforced."
"We will build a great wall along the southern border," he promised, inciting chants from the border state crowd. "And Mexico will pay for the wall. Hundred percent. They don't know it yet, but they're gonna pay for the wall." (President Peña Nieto, of course, unequivocally refuted this after his meeting with Trump earlier Wednesday.)
"On day one," Trump reiterated, his administration would begin construction on an "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall."
Trump — again reading of TelePrompTers — added that, "Thousands of Americans would be alive today if not for the open-border policies of this administration," which he associated with his opponent, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who served for four years as Secretary of State under President Obama.
The real estate mogul promised to "suspend the issuance of visas to [Syrians and Libyans] where adequate screening cannot occur," echoing the "extreme vetting" immigration plan Trump described earlier this month. Such "adequate screening" — presumably as it pertains to the Middle East — would include: "their views on honor killings," on "respect for women, gays, and minorities," "on radical Islam," and "many other topics."
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