Indiana Gov. and VP candidate Mike Pence (Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)
There will be no path to citizenship for illegal immigrants unless they leave the country, but Donald Trump will announce details in two weeks on whether there’ll be a deportation force to boot them out, GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said Sunday.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the Indiana governor also said the issue of whether children born in the United States were legal citizens also will be part of a future consideration of immigration reform.
“His position and his principles have been absolutely consistent,” Pence said. “We’re going to secure the border. We’re going to build a wall, have a physical barrier, enforce the laws of this country, end sanctuary cities, implement e-verify. And we will have a mechanism for dealing with people in this country that — you heard the word ‘humanely’… but there will be no path to legalization and citizenship unless people leave the country. He has said that consistently.”
“You’re going to hear in more detail in the next two weeks that lays out all the policies,” he added.
Pence said the issue of an estimated 4.5 million so-called anchor babies, whose legal citizenship Trump has opposed, “is a subject for the future.”
“What Donald Trump was referring to is this is part of the issue that we need to deal with in this country,” he said. “He is a man who speaks his mind. And he has put this issue front and center with the American people.”
Pence also pushed back at Hillary Clinton and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine’s charges that former KKK leader David Duke’s support of Trump proves he’s helping a radical fringe take over the GOP.
“I think his comments, Hillary Clinton’s comments on Thursday night sound desperate to me,” he said, adding: “I mean, the fact that an individual, a contemptible individual like that supports my running mate is no more relevant than the fact that the father of a man who killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida, was cheering Hillary Clinton in one of her rallies. ”