By Sandy Fitzgerald
NEWSMAX
GOP nominee Donald Trump has already clarified his stance on the use of a “deportation force” to remove undocumented immigrants from the United States, his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said Thursday.
“We have a deportation force,” Pence told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “It’s called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) . . . We’re going to get criminal aliens out of the country first. We’re going to get people to leave the country who are supposed to have left because their visas were overstayed, and then we’re going to reform the immigration system.”
When Trump laid out his policies during an Arizona speech on immigration, he explained that he plans to expand ICE, work on getting illegal immigrants who are criminals out of the country first, and to ask those who are in the country to leave, said Pence.
“He said, look, we’re going to build a wall, we’re going to secure the border, we’re going to expand our immigration and customs enforcement personnel, give them the resources and tools to do the job that the law requires them to do,” said Pence.
The Indiana governor, who scored high marks in this week’s vice-presidential debate against Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, also answered further questions from program host Joe Scarborough about Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims coming into the United States, saying Trump has not called for a ban on all Muslims.
“Of course not,” Pence said, explaining that Trump is talking about bans on Muslims coming from countries such as Syria that have been compromised by terrorism to the point that it’s difficult to tell who would be coming into the United States.
“We’re talking about areas of the world, territories and specifically countries that have been so compromised by terrorism that we can’t know for certain who those people are,” said Pence.
“Germany just a couple of weeks ago arrested three more Syrian refugees for being involved in terrorist planning and terrorist operations. The Paris attacks were organized by two Syrian refugees.”
Pence said he and Trump are committed to suspending the Syrian refugee program “that Hillary Clinton wants to grow by 550 percent,” because, as the FBI has reported, “we can’t know for certain in that war-torn country whose these people are.”
Trump’s plan for Syria calls for the creation of safe zones so that the people of Aleppo and other parts of war-torn Syria, and Pence said the United States needs to be prepared to use military resources to preserve the exit routes to the safe zones.
“We’ve got to take action immediately to get those families, especially those children, out of harms way, out of the reach of the Assad regime and the Russians,” said Pence.
“We’ve got to be prepared to use military resources, whether it’s a no-fly zone, or more direct military action, to preserve that exit route and to create that safe zone. That’s what Donald Trump’s called for,” he continued.
“That’s what I was referring to the other night in the debate. And my heart just breaks for more than a quarter of a million people that at this very moment are trapped in the city of Aleppo.”
Pence, who made appearances on most of the morning television cable shows, told both MSNBC and Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program that while he’s getting credit for winning Tuesday night’s debate, he felt it was a good opportunity to communicate Trump’s vision.
Meanwhile, on the Fox program, Pence commented on former President Bill Clinton’s criticism of Obamacare earlier this weekend, saying Clinton had said what “millions of Americans have known for years” when he’d said the program doubled costs while cutting benefits.
“Sometimes with the Clintons, even the truth happens,” said Pence, calling the former president’s comments a “great contribution” to Trump’s campaign. “We need to repeal Obamacare lock, stock and barrel.”
Pence also made appearances on NBC’s “Today” show and “CBS This Morning.”