LAREDO, Texas -- Donald Trump paid a visit to the Mexico border Thursday and predicted Hispanics would love him, because as president he would grab jobs back from overseas and give more opportunity to those who live in the U.S. legally.
"There's great danger with the illegals," the Republican presidential contender said. But he claimed a "great relationship" with Hispanics, even as he faced criticism for painting Mexican illegal aliens as criminals.
"I'll take jobs back from China, I'll take jobs back from Japan," Trump said. "The Hispanics are going to get those jobs, and they're going to love Trump."
Trump has continued to dominate attention in the GOP presidential race, to the growing exasperation of his rivals. Campaigning in Gorham, N.H., former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush offered a distinctly different message in the immigration debate -- and spoke partly in Spanish.
"A Republican will never be elected president of the United States again unless we campaign like this," Bush said, gesturing with open arms.
"Unless we campaign openly -- where we campaign in every nook and cranny of this country, where we go campaign in the Latino communities, fast-growing communities all across this country that will make a difference in who the next president is going to be."
Trump, a businessman and reality-TV host, set up a dramatic scene in advance of his campaign trip, saying he was putting himself in "great danger" by going to the border area across from the volatile Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo.
But, he said, "I have to do it. I have to do it."
Earlier Thursday, a border patrol union said it was pulling out of events involving Trump. Patrol agents had planned to accompany Trump to the border and hold a meeting with him but canceled after consultations with their national union, the National Border Patrol Council, said Hector Garza, president of Local 2455.
Trump stepped off his plane in Laredo and said the union members backed out because they were "petrified, and they're afraid of saying what's happening" at the border.
Trump has offered few specifics on his plan to repatriate jobs or other economic policies he would pursue if elected president. In his announcement speech last month, he called for rebuilding the nation's infrastructure and renegotiating foreign trade deals, but he did not say how he would seek to recast those agreements.
In recent years, he's called for a hefty tax on imports, criticized North American and South Korean trade deals and said Ford should be penalized for expanding operations in Mexico. He also has praised globalization for tearing down barriers to international markets.
His visit drew strong reaction from some residents of Laredo, which has an overwhelmingly Hispanic population.
Pedro Omar Castillo, 72, suggested that Trump needs the growing Hispanic vote to be successful in 2016. "But he's not going to get it because of his words," Castillo said in Spanish as he walked through a downtown park. "He is a racist."
But Karina Villalba, 26, waited for Trump at the airport and held a sign saying "I heard your speech & I am NOT offended." A Hispanic oil-field worker, she said she appreciates Trump's in-your-face tone.
"Sometimes honesty hurts," she said.
Trump roiled the presidential race weeks ago when he branded Mexican illegal aliens rapists and criminals, sparking a feud with his GOP rivals that intensified after his dismissive comments about Arizona Sen. John McCain's military service in the Vietnam War.
In Washington on Wednesday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry denounced Trump's campaign as a "cancer on conservatism" and a "barking carnival act" in a speech that defined "Trumpism" as "a toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition if pursued."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told MSNBC on Thursday: "I think he's sort of a political car wreck where people slow down and watch."
Elsewhere on Thursday, other GOP contenders opted to ignore their rival.
"Donald Trump can go down to the border -- he can go to the moon -- and it won't dissuade Gov. Kasich from focusing on his message to voters," said John Weaver, a senior adviser to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who on Tuesday became the 16th Republican to formally enter the race.
Kasich, like Bush, fielded questions from voters at town hall-style meetings in New Hampshire on Thursday.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee were in California for a meeting of conservative state lawmakers from around the country.
Addressing the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council, Walker took aim at the recent nuclear deal with Iran, saying he would trash it on his first day as president.
The Republican governor touted efforts in Wisconsin to restrict access to abortions and require voters to present photo identification, pledging to pursue those efforts as president. But he became most animated on the agreement with Iran to ease sanctions in exchange for limits on the Islamic nation's nuclear program.
"Iran is not a place that we should be doing business with," he said to loud applause, drawing a standing ovation.
Huckabee, meanwhile, lashed out at the U.S. Supreme Court for making same-sex marriage legal and warned about trade agreements that cost American jobs.
It was friendly territory for Walker, who belonged to the legislative group as a young Wisconsin state legislator. He and Huckabee were the only presidential contenders scheduled to appear at the meeting. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz canceled an appearance that had been set for today, citing a need to be in the Senate for votes.
Information for this article was contributed by Calvin Woodward, Alicia A. Caldwell, Kathleen Ronayne and Elliot Spagat of The Associated Press and by Patrick Healy of The New York Times.
A Section on 07/24/2015