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The brazen Republican candidate said he would start deporting illegal residents “in the first hour” of his Presidency. His “zero tolerance approach” to undocumented immigrants was announced at an emotionally charged rally in Phoenix, during which he blasted border controls, saying the level of immigration “is worse than anybody ever realised”.

GETTY Donald Trump has said he will introduce a deportation task force to remove immigrants

The business mogul backed-up his remarks by saying: “It's our right as a sovereign nation to choose immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us.” He added: “If we're going to make our immigration system work, then we have to be prepared to talk honestly and without fear about these important and very sensitive issues.” The deportation task force would be focussed on “identifying and quickly removing the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens in America”.

The 70-yea-old hotelier even joked that the task force, which would become a branch of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, could deport his Presidential rival Hilary Clinton. Just hours earlier the tycoon met Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and reinstated his promise to build a wall along he border of their two countries. He said: “Mexico will pay for the wall. 100 per cent. They don't know it yet but they're going to pay for the wall.”

GETTY Donald Trump met Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto, who he claims will pay to build the wall

Trump said the wall will be "beautiful" and "impenetrable”, including high-tech technologies to prevent illegal border crossings. The former reality TV star had previously offended America’s large Hispanic community with comments about Mexicans. He said: “They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. Some, I assume, are good people.”

President-Elect Donald Trump in pictures Tue, December 13, 2016 Donald John Trump is an American businessman and politician who is President-elect of the United States as well as chairman and president of The Trump Organization Play slideshow 1 of 64