Ann Coulter on Donald Trump’s Mexico trip and immigration speech
By Alex Bregman
On Wednesday night in Phoenix, Ariz., Donald Trump sought to answer any doubts his staunch supporters had about the “softening” of his immigration policy, and one of the most outspoken supporters, Ann Coulter, told Yahoo News Guest Anchor Stephanie Sy that she was pleased with what she heard. Coulter, author of the new book “In Trump we Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!” told Sy, “I can’t stop smiling. Technically, I thought his speech was better than Churchill,” referencing a tweet she made about Trump’s speech and Winston Churchill.
On whether or not every undocumented immigrant will get deported in a Trump administration, Coulter said, “Any law does not have 100 percent enforcement. Maybe you won’t catch all of them, but wow, we are talking about a pretty rapid deportation for, I don’t know, 60 to 80 percent of these.”
On getting funding from Congress to back Trump’s immigration plan, which includes building a wall on the southern United States border and tripling the number of ICE deportation officers, Coulter didn’t seem to think that would be an issue. She said, “A lot of what he plans to do doesn’t require very much from Congress. We already have a lot of money for the military and for the immigration enforcement service.”
When pressed on using military funding for Trump’s immigration plan, Coulter said, “You can use the military to build the wall. That’s a big part of it, and guarding the wall and making sure people are not coming into the country illegally is absolutely a military function; it’s been used before to construct things along our border. That is absolutely a military function, and that’s a huge chunk of the money needed to enforce our immigration laws for the first time.” She continued, “ICE already has a lot of money.”
Coulter also described Trump as having a mandate to put his plan in place if he’s elected. She told Sy, “If Trump is elected president, as I think he will be, I think it will send a pretty strong message for what the American people want on this, and yes, I do think Congress will go along with him for this whole program or face losing their reelection.”
Regarding the question of who would pay for the wall, which Trump again said Mexico would during his speech despite Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto’s statement that he told Trump Mexico would not pay during their meeting on Wednesday, Coulter did not buy Peña Nieto’s statement nor the timing of it. She said, “It does not sound very believable.”
What about having to build parts of the wall on private land? Coulter said, “For national security, absolutely.” She said Trump won’t have to use eminent domain: “This isn’t to build a shopping mall. This is the responsibility of the commander in chief to protect the border.”
Finally, Coulter was not concerned about the images of families being separated when they’re deported in a Trump administration. She said, “They’ll go together. That’s how the families stay together.” Coulter continued, “I’m sure the media will be fixating, as it has for 20 years, on the safety, comfort and security of the illegal aliens, but most of the neighborhoods where illegal aliens live in aren’t the ones where they’re doing the gardening and the maid service where the media live. They’re living out with the most vulnerable Americans, Hispanic Americans, black Americans, and they’re going to be happy to have their emergency rooms free again and have money for better schools and not have all the money go to English as a second language class.”
