Trump’s past comments illustrate striking shift on deportation policy

Donald Trump’s campaign insists that he hasn’t flip-flopped on illegal immigration despite backing down on his promise to deport all the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the United States.

The Republican presidential nominee’s hard-line immigration stance and incendiary rhetoric swayed primary voters. This past week, however, the candidate has backpedaled on his more extreme measures and said he’s open to “softening” immigration laws and potentially working with people who immigrated to the U.S. illegally but who have otherwise not committed any crimes. Trump even cited President Obama’s approach to deportation as one he would also embrace.

On Wednesday night, Trump asked the audience at his town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity to tell him whether he should just throw undocumented immigrants out of the country or if he should “work with them.”

“Can we go through a process, or do you think they have to get out? Tell me. I mean, I don’t know. You tell me,” Trump said to the crowd. “I’d like to know. I’d like to know.”

He then asked the crowd to cheer for the approach they preferred, almost as if they were on a game show.

This shift is striking, as Trump’s absolutist approach to illegal immigration was a hallmark of his primary campaign, and the mogul had long accused rivals of supporting “amnesty” for favoring any position less strict than his own.

CNN panelists burst into laughter Thursday morning when Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson claimed that he had “not changed his position on immigration. He’s changed the words he’s saying.”

“Katrina, he has said, ‘Get them out.’ He’s been very clear about his position. This is a change, this is a shift, this is a flip-flop, it’s an evolution — whatever words you want to use,” CNN host Erica Hill replied.

Here are some of Trump’s past statements that don’t fully square with what he’s said over the past week.

For undocumented immigrants, the entire family has to go

In August 2015, Trump told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that he would rescind the DREAM Act, which aims to let some people stay who illegally immigrated to the United States as minors.

“So you’re going to split up families,” Todd asked. “You’re going to deport children.”

“Chuck, Chuck, no, no. We’re going to keep the families together. We have to keep the families together,” Trump said. “But they have to go. They have to go.”

“What if they have no place to go?” Todd asked.

“We will work with them,” Trump replied.

The U.S. would have a deportation force

In November 2015, Mika Brzezinski, co-host of “Morning Joe,” pressed Trump on the specifics of his plan to quash illegal immigration.

“OK, conceptually I understand what you’re saying and what you’re describing. But still tell me the how. Are you going to have a massive deportation force?” she asked.

“You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely,” Trump said.

Shortly after, Brzezinski asked if people would face ramifications for not leaving or for harboring undocumented immigrants, to which Trump replied, “People will leave.”

“Are they going to get ripped out of their homes? How?” she asked.

“They’re going back where they came. If they came from a certain country, they’re going to be brought back to that country,” Trump said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Now, they can come back, but they have to come back legally. They can come back, but they have to come back legally.”

His comments were met with immediate pushback from many liberals, such as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Deporting all undocumented immigrants is ‘not mean-spirited’

Shortly after his MSNBC interview, Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier that his plan to deport all undocumented immigrants was not mean-spirited.

“Mine is not mean-spirited. Mine is, it’s business. We have a country,” he said. “You don’t have a country if people are allowed to walk in, cross the border, and stay here for as long as they want. You don’t have a country, and everybody knows it.”