It’s official: Donald Trump’s plan for massive deportations would apply to legal immigrants, as well as undocumented immigrants.
During an exclusive interview with NewsNation, Trump said he planned to strip the legal status of the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, who have been granted Temporary Protected Status.
“Springfield is such a beautiful place; have you seen what’s happened to it? It’s been overrun. They have to be removed,” Trump said.
“So you would revoke the Temporary Protected Status?” asked the interviewer.
“Absolutely, I’d revoke it and I’d bring them back to their country,” Trump said.
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The interviewer was the one who used the word “revoke” but Trump does seem like the kind of person who could attempt to end the TPS designation early rather than waiting for it to simply expire a year into his term. Such an attempt would have very little chance of success. Decisions to terminate (as opposed to revoke early) TPS status during Trump’s past presidency are still going through the courts (see Ramos, et al. v. Nielsen, et al.) and not in effect.
The interviewer asked if he would revoke it and he said yes he would revoke it. Words have meaning. He was asked a question, and he answered it very clearly and honestly more lucidly than his average response. He repeated the word revoke.
If he meant “let expire” he would have said “No, I wouldn’t revoke it but I would allow that to expire.” I don’t know what here is ambiguous. I get it, people hate Trump enough that sometimes they fill in the blanks with the worst possible thing. It’s hard to blame them because he usually says the worst possible things, but regardless that isn’t what is happening here.