Most of the coverage is suggesting that Trump didn’t soften on immigration in last night’s speech, which mostly made immigration hawks happy and doves furious. Trump himself says he did soften.
And on two issues, I think he has softened. First, will all illegal immigrants be deported? He used to say he would deport them quickly. He didn’t say it last night, and strongly implied that he wouldn’t. Instead he said he would move quickly to deport criminal aliens.
Second, will illegal immigrants be eligible for legal status? Here’s the relevant passage:
For those here today illegally who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and only one route: to return home and apply for re-entry under the rules of the new legal immigration system that I have outlined above. Those who have left to seek entry under this new system will not be awarded surplus visas, but will have to enter under the immigration caps or limits that will be established.
There will be no amnesty.
Our message to the world will be this: you cannot obtain legal status, or become a citizen of the United States, by illegally entering our country.
This declaration alone will help stop the crisis of illegal crossings and illegal overstays.
People will know that you can’t just smuggle in, hunker down, and wait to be legalized. Those days are over.
In several years, when we have accomplished all of our enforcement goals – and truly ended illegal immigration for good, including the construction of a great wall, and the establishment of our new lawful immigration system – then and only then will we be in a position to consider the appropriate disposition of those who remain. That discussion can only take place in an atmosphere in which illegal immigration is a memory of the past, allowing us to weigh the different options available based on the new circumstances at the time.
That last paragraph seems to conflict with what came before it. He is saying that after many illegal immigrants have been deported and many others have been allowed to stay without getting legal status, the government will “consider the appropriate disposition” of the latter. I don’t see how to read that except as opening the door to legalization, which is to say the amnesty that he disavowed four paragraphs earlier. It also contradicts the first sentence of the passage. If the door is open to a future amnesty, then it would have to be amended as follows: “For those here today illegally who are seeking legal status, they will have two routes: to return home and apply for re-entry under the rules of the new legal immigration system that I have outlined above; or to wait and see if we grant an amnesty to them in a few years.”
The new Trump policy seems to me to be a sound and reasonable one. It’s just hard to square with what he used to say on immigration, which is why, I suppose, he gave a speech that doesn’t quite fit together.