Speaking to 60 Minutes, president-elect says Mexico border wall would partially consist of fencing: ‘I’m very good at this. It’s called construction’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

President-elect Donald Trump has said he plans to deport as many as 3 million people once he accedes to the Oval Office, and that fencing will form part of his promised wall on the border with Mexico.

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In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes, set to be broadcast Sunday, Trump said: “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.”



“But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally.”

On the campaign trail, Trump said he would deport all undocumented migrants living in the US, estimated to be about 11 million people. He has stressed his desire to deport “criminal aliens” and said that he would deport families “in a very humane way”.

His comments to CBS stopped short of such extremes but they also contrasted with the words of House speaker Paul Ryan in a Sunday interview with CNN.

“That is not what our focus is,” Ryan told State of the Union. “We are focused on securing the border before we get on any immigration. We are not planning on erecting a deportation force, Donald Trump’s not planning on that.”

Speaking to CBS in his first broadcast interview since he defeated Hillary Clinton in the electoral college and lost to her in the popular vote, Trump referred to undocumented migrants without criminal records as “terrific people”. He did not describe in detail what his policy would be toward them.

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“After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized,” he said, “we’re going to make a determination on the people that they’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that.”

“But before we make that determination,” he added, “it’s very important, we are going to secure our border.”



The day he began his presidential campaign, Trump warned about Mexican migrants who were “rapists” and “criminals”, and spent weeks saying migrants were “pouring in” across the border, although research does not support links between immigration and crime, net migration has remained level for years, and more Mexican migrants are leaving the US than entering it.

The US already has a large infrastructure for arresting, detaining and deporting migrants. Over eight years, Barack Obama has deported more than 2.5 million people, more than any other president, and more than doubled the number of border patrol agents. He has also increased border surveillance, and contracted the country’s largest prison company to help detain migrants.

Obama pursued immigration reform but failed to press a bipartisan bill through Republican opposition in Congress in 2013 and 2014. He subsequently ordered sweeping executive actions to shield eligible migrants, mostly young people and all without criminal records, from deportation. Trump has pledged to rescind those orders.

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Trump also discussed his way to secure that border, the proposed wall, which on the campaign trail he said would be a genuine wall made of “hardened concrete”, “rebar” and “steel”.

Long stretches of the nearly 2,000-mile southern border already have fencing, under a years-long project that has proven difficult and expensive to enact.

Asked if some stretches of his wall would consist of fencing, as suggested by congressional Republicans, he said: “For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate.

“I’m very good at this,” the businessman added. “It’s called construction.”