Donald Trump plans to immediately deport or jail as many as three million undocumented immigrants, the Republican said Sunday as he set out his priorities as America's head of state in the first television interview since his election.
Millions were expected to tune in to Trump's full interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" for clues on how the populist billionaire will govern, and how far he intends to convert his firebrand slogans into hard and fast policy.
Since Tuesday's shock election triumph, Trump had appeared to tone down his rhetoric, notably suggesting he might be willing to reconsider a pledge to scrap President Barack Obama's signature health reform.
But he made clear in excerpts of Sunday's interview that he still intended to crack down on the undocumented, focusing on people with criminal records.
"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people - probably two million, it could be even three million - we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump said.
He also said he stood by his pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border - although he said it could include some fencing.
Experts estimate there are as many as 11 million foreigners living illegally in the United States, many of them Central and Southern Americans long-established in the country.
Trump's stance stood in opposition with comments by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said Sunday the focus under a Trump administration would be on securing the border, not rounding up immigrants.
"We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump's not planning on that," Ryan told CNN.
"Our job now is to hold him accountable," said Bernie Sanders, who lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination race.
"If Mr. Trump has the courage to take on Wall Street, to take on the drug companies, to try to work forward, go forward to create a better life for working people, we will work with him, issue by issue. "But if his presidency is going to be about discrimination, if it's going to be about scape-goating immigrants or scapegoating African-Americans or Muslims, we will oppose him vigorously," Sanders declared.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll out Sunday shows that 74 percent of Americans accept Trump's election as legitimate, but that number fell to 58 percent among supporters of his defeated rival Clinton.
Trump has shown some willingness to soften his more strident positions. His U-turn on Obamacare - he now says he may simply amend a law he once branded a "disaster" on the stump - was prompted by his White House meeting with the outgoing president earlier this week.