Trump backers claim shift in his immigration rhetoric

CLEVELAND -- As he turns his attention to the general election, Donald Trump is signaling he is ready to tone down his fiery rhetoric on illegal immigration -- at least behind closed doors.

At the same time, Republican officials appear eager to push him in a more moderate direction, telling Hispanics he has abandoned his divisive primary pledge to deport the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally -- even if Trump hasn't said so publicly himself.

"Trump has already said that he will not do massive deportations," Helen Aguirre Ferre, the Republican National Committee's director of Hispanic communications, said at a Spanish-language briefing at the party's convention two weeks ago. Instead, she said, "he will focus on removing the violent undocumented who have criminal records and live in the country."

It's a statement that may come as a surprise to Trump's legion of loyal followers, many of whom first were drawn to Trump because of his hard-line views on immigration and border security. Trump has vowed to build a wall along the length of the southern border and use a "deportation force" to track down and deport anyone in the country illegally.

"You're going to have a deportation force, and you're going to do it humanely," Trump said in a TV interview last fall. He estimated in a separate interview the process would take 18 months to two years.

But those who would like to see Trump move in a more inclusive direction say Trump has indicated he no longer advocates that plan.

As evidence, they point to several vague sentences from an interview Trump gave earlier this summer to Bloomberg News during a whirlwind trip to Scotland to visit his golf courses.

"President Obama has mass deported vast numbers of people -- the most ever, and it's never reported. I think people are going to find that I have not only the best policies, but I will have the biggest heart of anybody," Trump said.

Pressed on whether he would issue "mass deportations," Trump responded: "No, I would not call it mass deportations."

"We are going to get rid of a lot of bad dudes who are here," he was quoted as saying.

It remains unclear whether Trump was taking rhetorical or ideological issue with the phrase, and Trump has not made similar comments since.