Donald Trump to Focus on Immigration Reach Out to Black Voters Ahead of Labor Day
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will make two campaign stops this week to address issues related to minority populations, speaking on the issue of immigration and sitting down for a conversation before a black audience. Early in the week, Trump will deliver a much-anticipated speech Wednesday on immigration, an issue that has been central to the businessman's campaign for the White House. Heading into the holiday weekend, Trump will also make a stop at a black church in Detroit. In a tweet posted Sunday, Trump said he would deliver his remarks from Arizonaa speech that had originally been scheduled for Aug. 25 in Colorado. The campaign postponed the speech after the candidate appeared to soften his tone on the issue. Last week, Trump suggested he would allow the 11 million undocumented immigrants he had promised to deport back into the country if they paid back taxes. Earlier in the campaign, Trump had called for a "deportation force" to remove undocumented immigrants as well as the construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a policy that has been central to his remarks on the trail. "There certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people," Trump said during a Fox News town hall last week. "We want peoplewe have some great people in this country.", Trump's apparent policy shift frustrated conservatives including Ann Coulter, who wrote in a recently released book that a change to Trump's immigration policies would be unforgivable. "I am trying to encourage Donald Trump to dump whomever the moron is who told him Americans are staying up at night worried about how people who broke our laws entering, broke our laws staying here, broke our laws taking jobs, how comfortable they are," Coulter said on ABC News. On Saturday, , Trump will visit the Great Faith Ministries Church, a black church in Detroit, where he'll tape an interview with Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, according to the Detroit Free Press. The Bishop said in a statement that the interview was not a rally nor an endorsement, but an opportunity to hear where the candidate stands on the issues. The interview will be broadcast via the church's Impact Television Network. "The goal for this interview is to get real answers and Trump's views and plans on policies that affect our community," Jackson said in a statement. "The 2016 Presidential election is a determining factor on the direction of our country and we want to make sure we are providing an opportunity for an informed electorate to make the best decision possible.", The church has also reached out to the Clinton campaign for an interview, the Free Press reports. Though Trump has recently delivered addresses aimed at shoring up support from the black community, this will be the candidate's first visit to a black church. The Republican nominee recently began asking of black voters, "what the hell do you have to lose," in casting a ballot for him. Polls show, however, that Trump has a way to go before securing the 95 support he says he'd be able to gain from African Americans. , On Monday, Trump also released an ad hitting Hillary Clinton on the economy.