Washington, Aug 16 (EFE).- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC that as president he would deport all the undocumented immigrants in the United States.

 

The 69-year-old billionaire real estate developer said he would rescind President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

 

Obama issued executive orders aimed at protecting some 5 million migrants from deportation.

 

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, launched in 2012, has benefited hundreds of thousands of “Dreamers,” as undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children are known, but Obama’s attempt to aid the undocumented parents of U.S.-born children is on hold after a federal judge issued an injunction.

 

“We’re going to keep the families together, but they have to go,” Trump said in an interview that will air on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

 

Trump gave the exclusive interview this weekend to NBC’s Chuck Todd aboard his private plane in Des Moines after visiting the Iowa State Fair, an event attended by Republican and Democratic hopefuls looking to garner support from voters.

 

“We will work with them. They have to go. Chuck, we either have a country, or we don’t have a country,” he said.

 

Trump said U.S. immigration laws needed to be overhauled.

 

“We have to make a whole new set of standards” for people immigrating to the United States, Trump said.

 

Trump posted his immigration plan on his campaign’s Web site following the interview.

 

“A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border,” the Republican candidate said in his plan, adding that he would “make Mexico pay for the wall.”

 

Trump also called for ending birthright citizenship, which is granted by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

 

“This remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration. By a 2:1 margin, voters say it’s the wrong policy, including Harry Reid who said ‘no sane country’ would give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants,” Trump said, referring to birthright citizenship.

 

Trump said in the policy paper that his policies were being driven by the need to “put American workers first.”

 

“The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working class Americans – including immigrants themselves and their children – to earn a middle class wage,” Trump said.

 

Trump remains in the lead among Republican candidates in recent polls despite his hardline position on immigration policy and his penchant for making controversial comments. EFE