Story highlights Trump expressed support for "amnesty" for some undocumented immigrants during a 2011 interview on Fox News.

The 2011 exchange is significantly different from the central theme of Trump's 2016 campaign.

(CNN) Donald Trump expressed support for "amnesty" for some undocumented immigrants during a 2011 interview on Fox News.

In an appearance in November of 2011 on "Fox and Friends," Trump defended former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, then a candidate for the Republican nomination, who was being criticized by his opponent Michele Bachmann for saying at a debate that he wanted "a humane" approach to the subject of illegal immigration which would avoid deporting families rooted in American communities. Trump signaled he liked Gingrich's approach, agreeing with a Fox host's description that it could be called amnesty.

"Well first of all he's really talking about something where somebody has been in the country for 25 years, they've been educated here, they're really tremendously performing people, and citizens, or not citizens depending — I guess he's talking about if they become, or should they become, citizens," Trump said. "The fact is he's showing a lot of compassion. Now I know both of them, and they're both very, very, good people. I like what Newt is saying to a certain extent. It's a very limited thing, but he's talking about people that have really been terrific people for this country for a long, long, period of time. He's saying it's very, very, tough to throw them out.

"I tell you, I know Michele," said Trump. "And if you told Michele, 'Go across the street. You see that family? They've been here, they've been really producers for this country for 25 years. They're great people, their children are educated, their children are producers, you go tell that family to get out of here and get into their own country,' I don't think she could do it, because she's a good person."

"This isn't conservative, I'm the world's most conservative person, this isn't conservative. This is compassion," added Trump.

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