Donald Trump is trying to soften his immigration stance? Or just his image when it comes to bashing Latinos? Either option is near impossible if he wants to remain on good terms with his most ardent supporters.
Maria Cardona set the record straight on CNN's "New Day" earlier this morning.
Trump surrogate Kayleigh McEnany told CNN's Alisyn Camerota that Trump is still being tough on immigration, but now he's listing his "priorities" when it comes to deporting people out of the country.
Camerota turned to Cardona, a Hillary supporter, and said, "[Trump] has said he's going to do this in a humane way. The word "humane" was used many times this weekend. What is the humane way to deport people?"
Cardona responded, "That is the question. What does that mean, that there will be cushions on the buses and they’ll get milk and cookies on the way to the border. Who knows?”
She continued, "..he's been in a huge conundrum ever since he's become this general election candidate and he realized he needed to get additional support from Hispanic voters, from women, from moderate voters and that is why he supposedly talked about softening his stance -- which we now see is not really softening his stance."
Then she brought down the hammer. "Donald Trump has no idea how immigration law works."
Trump says once you get deported you can reapply, but Cardona explained that if undocumented workers are sent back to their home country, "you cannot do anything for the next ten years."
"So again, we're talking about a candidate who's clueless on immigration policy."
McEnany countered by quoting statistics about releasing criminals from jail, but Cardona explained that that was because they served out their sentences and because immigration judges and courts have released them.
Cardona said, “The fact of the matter is that under both George W. Bush administration and the Obama administration, there are some convicted criminals who have been released, but guess why?
It is because many of them. most of them, in fact, have actually served their sentence here in the U.S. jails. And in addition, many others have been forced or have been granted release by immigration judges and immigration courts."
Cardona showed how versed she is in immigration law (to McEnany's detriment). "Additionally, there are various countries like China, Cuba, Vietnam, who don’t accept deportation and, who don’t accept removals back to their own home country so again, cluelessness when it comes to real immigration law, what we are really facing in terms of the solutions that are needed.”
There is a real difference when you hear people (Cardona) discuss policy issues with real knowledge as opposed to those (McEnany) using rehearsed talking points.
