Donald Trump hit back against his Republican rivals who called his plan to deport 11 million people "silly" and unrealistic.
Trump appeared Wednesday morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to defend his proposal, which he compared during the GOP presidential debate the previous evening to a policy similar to one employed by President Dwight Eisenhower.
That controversial program -- Operation Wetback -- resulted in the roundup and deportation in the 1950s of 1.5 million people, many of them legal American citizens, and dropping them off by the busload in remote areas along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump, who did not invoke the controversial program by name, said his plan would somehow avoid the tragic consequences of Eisenhower's -- which resulted in human rights abuses and deaths.
“You’re going to have a deportation force, and you’re going to do it humanely,” Trump said. "Look, we have to do what we have to do, and Ike did it and other people have done it.”
He didn't describe how his program would preserve the illegal immigrants' humanity -- but he said it would somehow also be "cheap" to round up and deport millions of men, women and children living in the U.S.
It all starts with a wall that he has suggested he could force Mexico to build.
“It’s going to be a Trump wall," Trump said. "It’s going to be a real wall, and it’s going to stop people and it’s going to be good."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush each criticized Trump's immigration plan during the debate as outlandish and "not an adult argument."
The real estate tycoon and reality TV star said his plan would not result in a humanitarian crisis, and he said many of the deported immigrants would later be invited to re-enter the U.S. through some type of fancy door.
“There’s going to be a big beautiful nice door,” Trump said. “People are going to come in and they’re going to come in legally. But we have no choice. Otherwise, we don’t have a country. We don’t even know how many people. We don’t know if it’s 8 million or if it’s 20 million.”
Watch Trump's remarks posted online by the Washington Free Beacon:
