which provoked the outspoken opposition of many conservatives, I stood my ground aware that my position would imperil my campaign. I respect your opposition for I know that the vast majority of critics to the bill based their opposition in a principled defense of the rule of law. And while I and other Republican supporters of the bill were genuine in our intention to restore control of our borders, we failed, for various and understandable reasons, to convince Americans that we were. I accept that, and have pledged that it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration. Deport 2 million illegal immigrants who committed crimes There are 2 million people who are here who have committed crimes. They have to be rounded up and deported. We?re all basically in agreement there are humanitarian situations. It varies with how long they?ve been here, et cetera. We are all committed to carrying out the mandate of the American people, which is a national security issue, which is securing the borders. That was part of the original proposal, but the American people didn?t trust or have confidence in us that we would do it. Would no longer push his own 2006 immigration proposal Q: Your 2006 immigration proposal was much broader