GOP nominee Donald Trump Monday said there is a possibility that some undocumented immigrants could remain in the United States if he's elected as president, even if they do not want to become citizens.
"It could be, but what's going to happen is if you're going to be a citizen, you're going to leave and you're going to have to come back," Trump told ABC News' David Muir in an interview for "World News Tonight."
Undocumented immigrants who do not wish to become citizens, though, will "have to make a determination what happens when the border is secure," said Trump. "I'm going to make a decision, or somebody will. Whether it's me or somebody else because by that time we'll have a secure border, we'll have a wall."
He admitted to Muir that it is a "very difficult thing to do" when it comes to deporting parents whose children are citizens of the United States.
In his speech on immigration last week, Trump insisted that there will be no amnesty, and that he will send a message to the world that "you cannot obtain legal status or become a citizen of the United States by illegally entering our country. Under my administration anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came."
Also on Monday, Trump commented to reporters aboard his plane that he isn't "ruling anything out," but then rejected a path to legal status.
"No. To become a citizen you're going to have to go out and come back. Through the process you're going to have to get on line. This isn't touch back," the nominee said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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