Trump says he'll lay out 'exact plan' on immigration soon

Donald Trump pledged on Thursday to lay out his "exact plan" on immigration over the next week, after the Republican nominee has alarmed some conservatives by softening his hard-line stances on his signature issue.

"I will be making a speech on that, I would say over the next week, laying out an exact plan — and I think people will have great respect for the plan," Trump said as he met with African-American and Latino activists on Thursday morning.


“I look forward to that. … Very strong on illegal immigration. We have to be. We have no choice,” Trump told members of the press after the meeting ended. “We either have a country or we don’t, we either have borders or we don’t. The wall is very important.”

Trump's campaign manager insisted on Thursday morning that his views on immigration haven't changed, despite Trump saying this week that he'd be open to a "softening" of immigration laws and that he will "work with" certain non-criminal undocumented immigrants.

The different tone on immigration — a sharp departure from his talk of a deportation force — comes as Trump has stepped up his outreach to minorities. But he has received criticism for not delivering his message in minority communities, instead picking areas with predominantly white populations.

The meeting on Thursday, which was initially scheduled to happen in Ridgewood, Queens, was moved to Trump Tower in Manhattan due to “security reasons,” according to Pete Campbell, president of a Queen County GOP Club.

Trump met with fellows of the Republican Leadership Initiative, which trains young GOP activists in key battleground states.

“A very important part of the message for me are the African-Americans because they have really been let down by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats,” Trump said.