Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Trump Never Really Had an Immigration Policy

You can't lose what you never had.

August 23, 2016 at 4:46 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

Seeing the border his way.
Photographer: Matthew Busch/Getty Images

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Donald Trump made a seemingly momentous announcement on Monday, jettisoning a presidential campaign's worth of assertions that he would deport millions of undocumented immigrants and close what he has repeatedly called an "open" border.

Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly, who interviewed Trump, was obviously stunned. After telling Trump that the news media is "running wild with this," he asked Trump point blank: "Are you really rethinking your mass deportation strategy?"