A week before the GOP nominating convention, Speaker Paul Ryan
Paul Davis RyanThe Memo: Team Trump looks to Pence to steady ship in VP debate Biden's debate game plan? Keep cool and win Trump, Biden have one debate goal: Don't lose MORE (R-Wis.) made clear he disagrees with presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump
Donald John TrumpFive takeaways from the vice presidential debate Harris accuses Trump of promoting voter suppression Pence targets Biden over ISIS hostages, brings family of executed aid worker to debate MORE’s plan to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants.
“I don’t agree with that. I don’t think rounding up 11 million people A) is the right thing to do, B) would work,” Ryan said during a CNN televised town hall event. “And I don’t think you’d like to see what we’d have to do to the country to do that.”
Ryan, the chairman of next week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, has endorsed Trump. But the men represent two different camps in the Republican Party on the issue of immigration.
Trump is a hardliner who’s called for building a wall along the southern border and deporting everyone in the country here illegally. Ryan has pushed for immigration reform legislation during his congressional career, though he believes the country first needs to secure its border.
“I think you have to secure the border, you have to have reforms that get people out of the shadows and get right with the law and make sure while you are securing the border, you are fixing what’s broken in the legal immigration system,” said Ryan, the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee.
“That to me is an approach that makes sense, and it won’t require a round-up or mass deportation.”
Later in the program, Ryan was pressed by a woman in the audience to explain how he could back a candidate who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
“I disagree with him on it. It’s just that simple. No two people agree on everything,” Ryan said.
But, he added: “We have a binary choice. Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonFive takeaways from the vice presidential debate Trump campaign dialing back ads in Midwest states: report Hillicon Valley: Facebook to label posts if candidates prematurely declare victory | Supreme Court hears landmark B Google, Oracle copyright fight | House Dem accuses Ratcliffe of politicizing election security intel MORE. I pick Donald Trump.”
“On balance,” Ryan said, Trump is a far better choice than Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, especially when it comes to the list of possible conservative Supreme Court picks that Trump released last month.