Trump Delivers Hardline Speech On Illegal Immigration (Video)

After weeks of what appeared to be a softening of his hardline immigration stance, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump doubled-down on his anti-immigration rhetoric during a speech in Arizona (video below).

Trump said some bold things, but nothing like his fiery speeches from the beginning of his campaign, according to a transcript of the speech from the Los Angeles Times.

The fundamental problem with the immigration system in our country is that it serves the needs of wealthy donors, political activists and powerful, powerful politicians. Let me tell you who it does not serve. It does not serve you the American people. Doesn’t serve you. When politicians talk about immigration reform, they usually mean the following: amnesty, open borders, lower wages. Immigration reform should mean something else entirely. It should mean improvements to our laws and policies to make life better for American citizens.

Trump told the boisterous crowd that illegal immigration has caused a spike in violent crime and cited examples of American citizens who fell victim to undocumented immigrants. Trump then blasted Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for being open to the idea of amnesty, as well as for being in favor of allowing refugees from Syria come to the U.S.

“Countless Americans who have died in recent years would be alive today if not for the open border policies of this administration and the administration that causes this horrible, horrible thought process, called Hillary Clinton,” Trump said.

But several data sets show that crime rates are actually lower among the undocumented immigrant population than the native-born population, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Watch what’s going to happen, folks. It’s not going to be pretty. This includes her plan to bring in 620,000 new refugees from Syria and that region over a short period of time. And even yesterday, when you were watching the news, you saw thousands and thousands of people coming in from Syria. What is wrong with our politicians, our leaders, if we can call them that. What the hell are we doing?

Trump called for 5,000 more U.S. Border Patrol officers and a tripling if ICE deportation officers to fast-track deportations.

“Within ICE I am going to create a new special deportation task force focused on identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in America who have evaded justice just like Hillary Clinton has evaded justice, OK?” Trump said. “Maybe they’ll be able to deport her.”

Sources: Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal / Photo credit: PBS NewsHour/YouTube