Former President Donald Trump said during an Iowa town hall on Wednesday night in Des Moines that if elected president in November, he wouldn't need to do anything about cities that have declared themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants because the Democrats who run them will end the practice.
The town hall, moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum of Fox News, occurred five days before Monday's Iowa caucuses kick off the GOP primary schedule.
"They are going to be ended because the Democrats are going to end them because you can't sustain it," Trump said in response to a question from a caucusgoer who was undecided before Wednesday night, declaring prior to her question that "we got back to President Trump."
"If you look at New York, you have a mayor [Eric Adams] who now is really hostile to the [Biden] administration because New York City … that's my place," Trump said. "I love New York. It's gone. It's had a tough time.
"What's happened is, this country cannot sustain 15 or 16 million [illegal immigrants] because I think that's the real number. I think by the time [Joe Biden's] administration ends, and hopefully quickly, it's going to be 18 million people.
"That's bigger than New York state, that's bigger than just about every state, other than one or two. Remember this, many of those people come from jails and prisons. Many of those people come from mental institutions and insane asylums, and many of those people are terrorists."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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