Why Trump Can’t Back Away on Immigration

First Read: “Since launching his presidential candidacy 14 months ago, Donald Trump’s most consistent and uncompromising policy issue has been immigration. Indeed, it was the subject of his first general-election TV ad that started airing on Friday. Yet over the weekend, his top aides and advisers suggested that Trump might be shifting on his past position that all of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States must be deported forcibly. ‘To be determined,’ is what newly minted Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway said on CNN when asked if Trump was retreating on the ‘deportation force’ he talked about during the primary season.”

“But here’s why it’s so hard — if not impossible — for Trump to retreat on immigration: He’s caught between his clear, unambiguous past statements and a base that might not willing to see him moderate on the issue.”