Trump Stirs Strong Feelings On Border Visit

If Donald Trump was looking for enemies he would not have to look too far in Laredo, Texas.

As we film on a street corner a driver shouts out of his window: "Tell Trump to go back to where his family came from - we don't want him here."

Another man shouts: "He's an idiot, he talks too much."

Mr Trump's visit to the city which borders Mexico has unsurprisingly stirred strong feelings.

The billionaire businessman and would-be president generated headlines with his repeated insistence that Mexico was sending rapists, drug dealers and criminals over to US soil.

Cab driver Juan Jose Hernadez, who hails from Mexico himself, tells me: "Trump has offended Hispanic people.

"Most people who come from Mexico are good, hardworking people.

"Sure, there will be some bad people who get into the USA but only a few."

Some go further, calling Mr Trump a racist and a bigot.

But even in Laredo, which according to the US census is the most Hispanic city in America, people acknowledge that there needs to be controls on immigration.

Immigrants themselves acknowledge it.

And that sentiment is what Mr Trump has tapped into with volatile language and dramatic suggestion of building a 2,000-mile wall to span the US/Mexico border.

His style and rhetoric alienate many, but if the polls are to be believed they resonate with millions of Americans.

One major poll this week gave him a near double-digit lead over his closest rival for the Republican nomination for president.

"He is blunt. He doesn't sugarcoat things like other politicians," says 'Andrea' who we catch up with after Mr Trump attended a hastily convened gathering with border patrol workers.

He had been promised a tour of the border with those who police it but the plug was pulled at the last minute.

The official reason given by the workers' union was that they did not want to be seen to endorse any candidate.

Mr Trump's reason, delivered with gusto to the assembled media, was the truth about illegal immigration is being kept hidden.

And plenty of border staff at the gathering privately tell us that is what they think too.

Mr Trump does not pull his punches on immigration - or it would seem much else.

That guarantees him airtime and column inches.

But as time goes by, the man so emphatic on opinion is being increasingly pressed for facts.

"Do you have evidence that Mexico is sending criminals here?" shouts a journalist.

"I do. And people tell me about it," says Mr Trump. That is it.

"What will you do with the millions of undocumented migrants in America?" asks another.

"We need to strengthen the border and then we will have lots of time to think about that," says Mr Trump.

Again, that is it, as he heads off in the kind of cavalcade that reminds you of presidents.

He has money. Lots of it. That is arguably the most critical ingredient in any US election.

He has bravado too - and that cannot do him any harm.

He went as far in Laredo as promising he will secure the Hispanic vote and the Republican nomination.

But if he is to persist as a serious candidate then the demand for detail over broad brush strokes, policy detail over opinion, will surely increase.