President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that in addition to building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, he plans to immediately deport or incarcerate 2 million to 3 million people in the country illegally who are “criminal and have criminal records, gang, members, drug dealers.”
He spoke with Lesley Stahl on CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday night.
“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 gonna make a determination at that. But before we make that determination," he said.
Such a promise was directly at odds with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who told CNN's "State of the Union" earlier on Sunday that the president-elect "is not planning on erecting a deportation force."
"I think we should put people's minds at ease" on mass deportation because the top priority is really border security, Ryan said.
In the CBS interview, Trump also said that he would accept a fence in some places along the border.
“For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction.”
Trump campaigned on a vow to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. He also has insisted he will deport all 11 million people in the country illegally, with exceptions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.