Far-right Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward acknowledged last month that Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico — which was recently added to the Republican platform — is merely a “euphemism” for other anti-immigrant policies.
Ward, who is challenging Arizona Sen. John McCain from the right in the upcoming GOP primary, is just the latest anti-immigrant conservative to admit that Trump is unlikely to actually build the wall he has promised his supporters.
In a July 26 interview with Tucson radio host James T. Harris, Ward claimed that when Trump talks about a wall he is actually talking about draconian policies such as ones preventing undocumented children from attending public schools are accessing health care:
Now, I’ll tell you, I’m ready to mix the mortar to fix the border, I’m ready to go in there and join Donald Trump. And when he says we want a wall, I think it’s a euphemism for securing the border. He means we need a barrier, I think we do need a physical barrier in some places, but also that we have to utilize technology, we have to utilize our people, we have to empower our border patrol to stop people from coming in and we have to turn off the goodies — that’s what Dr. Carson used to say when he was on the campaign trail — turn off the jobs, turn off the free education, health care, housing, free money, and let people know there are consequences to coming here illegally rather than rewards.
