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You are here: Home / 2016 Campaign / Why Trump Can’t Back Away on Immigration

Why Trump Can’t Back Away on Immigration

August 22, 2016 at 1:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

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.”

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Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Immigration

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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