In comments that run counter to his previous stance on the signature issue of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that although undocumented immigrants living in the United States will get “no citizenship”, they will pay back taxes in exchange for legal status provided “we get the bad ones out”.

“They’ll pay back taxes, they have to pay taxes, there’s no amnesty, as such, there’s no amnesty, but we work with them,” Trump said, in remarks set to air tonight on Hannity’s show.

“Now, everybody agrees we get the bad ones out,” Trump said of his immigration policy, which heretofore has called for the construction of a 2,000-mile wall along the US southern border and a “deportation force” that would remove the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently estimated to live in the country.

“But when I go through and meet thousands and thousands of people on this subject,” he continued, “and they’ve said, ‘Mr Trump, I love you, but to take a person who’s been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and their family out, it’s so tough, Mr Trump’. I have it all the time! It’s a very, very hard thing.”

Trump’s current position is identical to that of primary rival Ohio governor John Kasich, who opposed citizenship for illegal immigrants but supported a path to legal status, and to the right of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who eventually endorsed mass deportation and banning anyone in the country illegally from becoming a citizen in the course of his hard-fought primary campaign against Trump.

The remarks are further indication that Trump is reversing his previous stance on illegal immigration, after a meeting with Latino Republicans over the weekend led multiple outlets to report that Trump had vowed to move beyond his pledge to deport all undocumented immigrants from the country.

But the Trump campaign threw cold water on those reports at the time. Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, said on Saturday: “Trump said nothing today that he hasn’t said many times before, including in his convention speech – enforce our immigration laws, uphold the constitution and be fair and humane while putting American workers first.”

Since fall of last year, Trump vowed to create a “deportation force” to eject undocumented migrants from the US, but campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, a new addition to the campaign after a leadership shakeup earlier this month, waffled on whether the candidate still embraced that idea on Sunday.

“As the weeks unfold, he will lay out the specifics of that plan that he would implement as president of the United States,” Conway, a former supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, told CNN. Asked about whether those specifics included a “deportation force”, Conway replied: “To be determined.”

John Weaver, former senior strategist for the presidential campaign of Ohio governor John Kasich, told the Guardian that Trump’s newfound openness to legal status for undocumented immigrants reads highly familiar – despite Trump decrying the position as tantamount to amnesty during the Republican presidential primaries.

“He has jack rabbit trailed his way to John Kasich’s correct view on immigration,” Weaver said. “But, alas it won’t last. It’s like George Wallace joining the editorial board of the New York Times. Not going to last.”

Trump’s flip-flop also drew scorn from those Republican diehards opposed to him. Rick Wilson, a senior adviser to independent candidate Evan McMullin and a hardcore #NeverTrump Republican, told the Guardian: “Donald Trump supporters, who flocked to him in droves for a hard line, punitive ‘deport them all’ promise must have whiplash. His new handler Kellyanne Conway has pushed him to the left of the Gang of Eight and his new amnesty plan is sure to cause heartache with his nervous fans.”

In contrast, Lorella Praeli, the director of Latino Vote for the Clinton campaign, jabbed at Trump from the left over his remarks. “Yesterday in Texas, Trump doubled down on his dangerous immigration policies and once again falsely painted Latinos as criminals. Here’s a message for Trump: Latinos can see through your cynical ploys – no play of words can hide the fact that you’ve built your entire campaign on a dangerous agenda that seeks to demonize immigrants, deport 16 million people, build a giant concrete wall and send a deportation force into our communities.”