In Phoenix, Arizona this evening, Donald Trump will finally deliver his highly-anticipated speech on immigration.
Trump’s event will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center beginning at 6:00 p.m. Mountain Time. It can be viewed in the embedded YouTube player via Right Side Broadcasting.
This speech is particularly important because Trump’s position on immigration has been rather unclear over the past week or so. Throughout the Republican presidential primaries, Trump called for the deportation of all 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. But in recent days, Trump has seemingly flip-flopped on this issue, now hinting that only criminal aliens would be deported.
“When I look at the rooms and I have this all over, now everybody agrees we get the bad ones out,” Trump recently said in a Fox News town hall. “But when I go through and I meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject…they’ve said, Mr. Trump, I love you, but to take a person that has been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and the family out, it’s so tough, Mr. Trump.”
He also proposed a deportation force that would remove all illegal immigrants from the country, but it’s unclear whether this is still a part of his proposal; when asked about this recently, Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said it was “to be determined.”
Trump also recently stated that he was “softening” on immigration, only to say a day later that he is not softening.
In his speech today, then, Trump needs to clarify what should be done with the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are already in the United States, particularly those who have not committed any crimes. If he believes that they should leave the country, he also needs to explain his plan for accomplishing this and clarify whether it will involve a deportation force.