President-elect Donald Trump told “60 Minutes” that up to 3 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are “criminal” and pledged to deport or incarcerate them.
In his first post-election interview, Trump also said he is sticking with his plan to build a wall along the Mexican-U.S. border and that parts of it might come in the form of a fence.
The interview with correspondent Lesley Stahl airs on “60 Minutes” Sunday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. ET on CBS.
“They are talking about a fence in the Republican Congress, would you accept a fence?” asked Stahl.
To which Trump said: “For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction.”
Trump went on: “What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally. After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that they’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are going make a determination at that — But before we make that determination — Lesley, it’s very important, we are going to secure our border.”
In a previously revealed excerpt, Trump also told “60 Minutes” that he will keep parts of President Barack Obama’s marquee accomplishment, Obamacare, despite his multiple claims to repeal it completely and replace it with a Republican-approved plan.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States, and has already met with President Obama as well as Republican leaders in Washington, to begin the transition of power process.