Wall Street Journal
By Heather Haddon
September 2, 2015
Donald
Trump is extending an olive branch to a prominent Hispanic business
group, but he’s not backing down from his hard-line stance on illegal
immigrants.
During
a Wednesday interview on Geraldo Rivera’s radio show, Mr. Trump said he
had privately met with the head of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce to discuss the
Republican presidential candidate’s platform to build a wall spanning
the border with Mexican and force undocumented immigrants to leave the
U.S.
The
meeting with chamber head Javier Palomarez lasted about an hour, the
businessman told the newsman on the “Geraldo Rivera Show.” Mr. Trump
said they didn’t agree on
everything but called it a good meeting and said that the chamber was a
group that was “right up my line.”
“The
Hispanics are great entrepreneurs, the Mexicans are great
entrepreneurs,” Mr. Trump said on Mr. Rivera’s program on 77 WABC in New
York City. “They work hard, they
have great energy and they are great people.”
But
when asked whether Mr. Trump could have made the same points against
illegal immigration without “demonizing a whole race of people,” the
businessman flatly said “no.”
“They
are tough points. I think we have to make them tough,” Mr. Trump said.
“I’m a believer in the wall. I’ve seen people pouring across the
borders.”
Mr. Palomarez told CNN that he and Mr. Trump had a “thoughtful conversation” about immigration but still have disagreements.
The
chamber group, which counts itself as the largest association of
Hispanic business owners in the U.S., invited all the candidates to
speak before its members, with
rival GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush set to keynote its national
convention in October. Mr. Trump’s campaign responded about three weeks
ago and asked for a private meeting first, said Ammar Najjar, a chamber
spokesman.
The
meeting in New York City was much more cordial than the association
expected, and Mr. Trump listened and asked questions more than he spoke,
said Mr. Najjar, who attended
the session.
In announcing his candidacy in June, Mr. Trump said that some Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S. were rapists and criminals.
Mr.
Rivera, who is part Puerto Rican, said that while he wanted “to tell
Spanish people that he’s a much more reasonable person than he’s being
portrayed,” Mr. Trump has
overemphasized undocumented immigrants being criminals and needed to
tone down his rhetoric.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Rivera to “lighten up.”
“It’s all going to work out,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m a great manager.”
The
two, who have known each other for years, agreed to go to a Mexican
restaurant together, and moved on to addressing Mr. Bush’s recent
attacks of the businessman. Mr.
Trump said the attacks by Mr. Bush haven’t been effective. ““His
commercial is ridiculous. I look like it was 12 years old in it,”
referring to the age of the clips.
During the meeting with Mr. Palomarez, Mr. Trump agreed to address members of the Hispanic chamber of commerce on Oct. 8.
“I
will say it won’t be that easy of a meeting,” Mr. Trump said about the
upcoming forum. “Ultimately I think we will all get along.”
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