Donald Trump: "We Must Protect Our American People" Major Immigration Speech 8/31/16 FNN

Donald Trump says the nation's immigration policy must focus on what is best for American citizens, not those living in the country illegally.

He says, "There is only one core issue in the immigration debate and that issue is the well-being of the American people."

Still he says that he intends to treat "everyone living or residing" in the country with "great dignity."

Trump is also accusing President Barack Obama and his rival Hillary Clinton of engaging in a "gross dereliction of duty" for supporting more liberal immigration policies.

He says that Clinton talks about the families that would be separated if people in the country illegally were deported, but she doesn't talk about families impacted negatively by illegal immigration.

Just days ago, Trump was praising the number of people deported under the Obama administration.

------

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is opening his long-awaited immigration policy speech by detailing the stories of illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes.

Trump is telling thousands in the convention center in downtown Phoenix that he has "met with many of the great parents who lost their children to sanctuary cities and open borders."

He talked about beatings and stabbings of young women, then said simply, "It's not going to happen anymore."

Before Trump took the stage, families of such victims addressed the audience, describing how their children or loved ones were killed and thanking Trump for his promise to enforce the U.S.-Mexican border.

Trump is emphasizing illegal immigrants accused of crimes, an issue of far less controversy than what to do with the millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally who have not been accused of crimes.