Donald Trump: ‘I’m not flip-flopping’ on immigration

Donald Trump says he is not “flip-flopping” on his plan to deport millions of people who immigrated to the U.S. illegally, days after reports indicated he was hedging on one of his signature campaign vows.

“I’m not flip-flopping,” the Republican nominee said on “Fox & Friends” on Monday. “We want to come up with a really fair but firm answer.”

“We have to be very firm. We have to be very, very strong when people come in illegally,” Trump said. “We have a lot of people that want to come in through the legal process. It’s not fair to them. And we’re working with a lot of people in the Hispanic community to try and come up with an answer.”

On Saturday, Trump met with his Hispanic advisory council at Trump Tower in New York City, where he reportedly told Hispanic leaders that he plans to unveil a new policy that would help find a way to legalize some of those living illegally in the United States.

“Trump acknowledged that there is a big problem with the 11 million [undocumented] people who are here,” Jacob Monty, a Texas immigration lawyer who attended the meeting, told Univision. “And that deporting them is neither possible nor humane.”

That acknowledgement would stand in sharp contrast with what the real estate mogul has previously said about immigration. Trump began his presidential campaign last summer with a speech in which he accused the Mexican government of sending “rapists” over the border. He has also vowed to build a massive wall along the U.S. border and have Mexico pay for it.

And last fall, the former “Celebrity Apprentice” host said he would utilize a “deportation force” to carry out his plan.

But on Sunday, Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, would not say whether the candidate was softening his stance on the “deportation force” that he had previously pledged to install.

“To be determined,” Conway said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Conway also disputed the notion that Trump had changed his tune.

“What Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting … varied little from what he has said publicly,” Conway said. “What he supports is to make sure we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for jobs, and that we are fair and humane to those who live among us.”