Trump on Illegal Immigration: ‘We Either Have a Country or We Don’t’

TAPPER: “Let’s talk about immigration. You called for a deportation force that would actively eject 11 million or so — however many there are undocumented immigrants. I asked Ted Cruz about that last week. He said, he would strengthen the border, enforce the law, but he said, on this program, on STATE OF THE UNION, that — quote — “we don’t live in a police state,” this is a specific rejection of what I said you were proposing. And he said he’s not going to sent jack boots to people’s door. What’s your response?”

TRUMP: "President Eisenhower, who is a very nice man, “I like Ike,” that was his great slogan. Like mine is, make America great again. He’s was, “I like Ike.” And President Eisenhower, probably the number — the real number is 2.3 million. Some people say it’s 1.5 million went through this process.”

TAPPER: “A lot of people think that’s a shameful chapter of American history though.”

TRUMP: “Well, some people do and some people think it was effective chapter. And what happened is when they removed some, meaning brought them back, when they brought them back, they removed some, everybody else left. And it was very successful in one sense. So, I mean that’s the way it is. Look, we either have a country or we don’t. If we don’t have strong borders, we have a problem.”