“He may not spend much time trying to get Mexico to pay for it. But it was a great campaign device.”

— Newt Gingrich, quoted by The Week, on Donald Trump’s promise to have Mexico pay for a border wall.

“If Donald Trump sticks to the immigration pledges that helped drive his presidential election victory, he will begin a clampdown on illegal immigration that would be unprecedented in American history and would require an exorbitantly expensive — and logistically difficult — operation to remove millions from the country while fortifying the border,” the Washington Post reports.

“As a candidate, Trump made immigration one of his highest-profile issues, saying he’d create a ‘special deportation task force’ and build a ‘beautiful’ wall along a major part of the southern border with Mexico. But immigration experts say those promises, though popular among his base, pose major complications as Trump prepares for office.”

“Yet even with the potential difficulties, Trump will have the administrative tools to massively scale back the Obama administration’s efforts to shield millions of immigrants from deportation, former federal officials say. With the stroke of a pen, for example, Trump could reverse a program that has protected hundreds of thousands of people brought to the United States illegally as children — something he has vowed to do.”

Jonathan Chait notes that Donald Trump told Fox News after Mitt Romney’s defeat that the Republican party needed to pass immigration reform or it might never win an election again.

“The narrow focus on immigration was always a simplistic one. The plan appealed to the party’s donor base, which was eager to maintain policies like huge tax cuts for the rich and loose regulations on Wall Street, which were also fat political targets. But Republicans were certainly correct that immigrant communities were unlikely to start voting for Republicans as long as they planned to deport their friends and relatives. Trump could happily repeat this analysis at the time because he cares about nothing except power, which he both craves and approves of in its bloodiest and most totalitarian applications. Trump would repeat the conventional wisdom of the Republican donor base and then turn around and insist upon the opposite without a second thought.”

“And now, of course, as Latino voting is surging in reaction to his racist attacks, the analysis he endorsed in December, 2012 appears to be the most accurate description of why he is likely to lose.”

Just four years ago, CNN notes that Donald Trump took a drastically different position on what is now his central issue: deporting undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Said Trump: “You know my views on it and I’m not necessarily, I think I’m probably down the middle on that also. Because I also understand how, as an example, you have people in this country for 20 years, they’ve done a great job, they’ve done wonderfully, they’ve gone to school, they’ve gotten good marks, they’re productive — now we’re supposed to send them out of the country, I don’t believe in that.”

“Citing a border patrol union leader, Donald Trump said that agents have been told to allow immigrants into the United States illegally ‘so they can vote in the election,'” the AP reports.

Said Trump: “That’s a massive story. They are letting people pour into the country so they can go ahead and vote.”

“But he offered no evidence to support his most recent claim that presidential voting may be tainted by fraud.”

Donald Trump “made his immigration policies clear: Mexico will fund an impenetrable, beautiful border wall, and the Republican presidential nominee’s administration will begin its construction on the first day of his presidency,” Politico reports.

Said Trump: “On Day One, we will begin working on an impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful southern border wall. We will use the best technology, including above and below ground sensors. That’s the tunnels. Remember that. Above and below. Above and below ground sensors. Towers. Aerial surveillance and manpower to supplement the wall. Find and dislocate tunnels and keep out criminal cartels and Mexico will work with us. I really believe it. Mexico will work with us. I absolutely believe it.”

“Trump outlined other planks of his policy position, including a promise to return all detained undocumented people to their home countries and zero tolerance for immigrants who commit crimes. It amounted to a massive deportation program.”

He noted: “You can call it deported if you want. The press doesn’t like that term. You can call it whatever the hell you want. They’re gone.”