From the moment Donald J. Trump became a presidential candidate, he has carved out a position as the hardest of immigration hardliners.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he said in his campaign announcement speech. “I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
In addition to border security, Trump has also insisted he would stem the flow of legal immigration and put an end to abuses of H1B visas. The program is designed to bring immigrants into the country to work in specialized fields, usually in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs, but has been used by some large companies to lay off American workers after forcing them to train their foreign replacements.
RELATED: Sessions was right: Thousands of Americans laid off after training their foreign replacement
Trump’s position has earned him the support of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) the leading conservative voice against both illegal immigration and the H1B visa program.
Sessions endorsed Trump at a massive Alabama rally two weeks ago, the first time the Alabama senator has officially thrown his support behind any presidential contender. He was subsequently named chairman of Trump’s National Security Advisory Committee.
But in the most recent presidential debate, Trump suddenly changed course.
“I’m changing,” Trump said. “I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can’t do it, we’ll get them in. But, and we do need in Silicon Valley, we absolutely have to have.”
“So, we do need highly skilled,” Trump continued, “and one of the biggest problems we have is people go to the best colleges. They’ll go to Harvard, they’ll go to Stanford, they’ll go to Wharton, as soon as they’re finished they’ll get shoved out. They want to stay in this country. They want to stay here desperately, they’re not able to stay here. For that purpose, we absolutely have to be able to keep the brain power in this country.”
When asked by debate moderator Megyn Kelly if he was “abandoning the position on (his campaign) website,” Trump said, “I’m changing it. And I’m softening the position because we have to have talented people in this country.”
Then, less than an hour after the debate, Trump’s campaign released a statement apparently reverting to his previously-held position.
“Megyn Kelly asked about highly-skilled immigration,” Trump said. “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay. I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements. I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa and immigration program. No exceptions.”
In a subsequent report in the Washington Examiner titled “Confusion follows Trump flip-flop on key immigration issue,” Byron York spoke with numerous immigration hardliners from the Sessions wing of the GOP who were left befuddled.
Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stemming the flow of immigration into the U.S., told York he was disappointed.
“[Trump] made clear in October he didn’t believe what’s in his immigration paper about skilled immigration,” he said, “and at the last debate he showed he buys the ‘jobs Americans won’t do’ line on unskilled workers too… His embrace of foreign tech workers is particularly shocking given that just days ago he featured American workers replaced by Disney at one of his rallies.”
Writer Mickey Kaus agreed with Krikorian’s assessment.
“I’ve heard from enough tech workers displaced by H-1Bs that Trump’s apparent answer very dispiriting,” he tweeted.
Trump’s rivals have seized the opportunity as well. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has advocated expanding the H1B visa program and been an opponent of Sessions’ on the issues of immigration and trade, said Trump is “totally clueless,” even on “his signature issue” of immigration.
Whether he’s “clueless” or a “con man,” as others have suggested, Trump’s flip-flopping on the immigration issue has left many in the large and growing Jeff Sessions wing of the Republican Party wondering, “Is Trump really one of us?”
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