Donald Trump wasn’t always the immigration hawk he wants us to think he is now. Assessing Mitt Romney’s loss in 2012, Trump said at the time that Republicans were just too mean to immigrants. “Republicans didn’t have anything going for them with respect to Latinos and with respect to Asians,” the billionaire said. “The Democrats didn’t have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren’t mean-spirited about it. They didn’t know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind.” We’d call it exploitative. Trump continued, “[Romney] had a crazy policy of self-deportation which was maniacal. It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote. He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country.” Furthermore, Trump said, the GOP must work toward a comprehensive immigration policy “to take care of this incredible problem that we have with respect to immigration, with respect to people wanting to be wonderful productive citizens of this country.” That’s a far cry from his presidential announcement this year: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best; they’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems.”