Trump: Immigration policies not meant ‘to hurt people’

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday indicated he may be open to some changes to immigration laws.

{mosads}”There certainly can be a softening because we’re not looking to hurt people,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview scheduled to air during “Hannity” on Tuesday night, according to news website The Texas Tribune.

Trump was responding to a question about whether there’s any part of the law he might be able to change to accommodate immigrants who came here illegally, but who “contribute to society, have been law-abiding, have kids here.”

“We want people — we have some great people in this country,” Trump said.

“We are going to follow the laws of this country.” 

Full bit of Trump telling Hannity that “there could certainly be a softening” re: mass deportations: pic.twitter.com/hKoWoPqNYQ

— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 23, 2016

Trump’s openness to “softening” comes amid new questions about his position on the issue.

The GOP nominee has, in the past, called for some kind of deportation force to remove the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

But on Sunday, Trump’s new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said it is “to be determined” if the candidate’s immigration plans would include such a force.

Trump insisted on Monday he wasn’t “flip-flopping” on deporting the 11 million people living illegally in the U.S.

In an interview that aired Monday night on Fox News, he said the country would follow existing laws and pledged that the first thing he would do after being elected president would be to “get rid of all of the bad ones.”

He also suggested he would use tactics similar to those used by Presidents Obama and George W. Bush regarding immigration enforcement.

During the interview Tuesday with Hannity, the Fox News host asked Trump whether people who “have worked hard, who have been here a long time” would be sent back to the countries they left.

“We are going to follow the laws,” Trump said in response. “We’re going to see where people are, we’re going to see how they’ve done.”

“You have years and years of people waiting on line. They’ve gone through a process,” Trump said, noting he was referring to people who were going through the immigration process legally.

“They’re great people in some cases, and I guess in some cases, maybe not. But you have really great people wanting and so proudly wanting to come into our country and now what you’re doing is you take people away from that line.”

Media attention has been focused Trump’s difficulties with nonwhite voters, a factor many trace to his signature proposal to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and his incendiary rhetoric since the launch of his campaign last year, when he said most people coming from Mexico were “rapists” and other criminals.