Key takeaways:
- Trump said deportations of working immigrants whose only violation was illegal entry had hurt him politically.
- He proposed negotiating a deal for some people who have lived in the United States for 10 or 15 years.
- Exit polling found 58% of voters said the administration’s immigration actions had gone too far.
President Donald Trump said his administration’s deportation policy may have been “too tough” on immigrants who have lived in the United States for years and worked without committing crimes beyond entering the country illegally. He said he would like to negotiate an immigration deal with Democrats after Republican losses in the midterm elections.
“I think it was too tough,” Trump told correspondent Ross Douthat in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes. “A lot of people would say that it’s great, but a lot of people think it’s too tough.”
Trump said the crackdown “both helped and hurt” him politically. He said he received an “A+ for closing up the border” and high marks for removing people he called “the bad ones.” But he acknowledged the impact of deporting people with jobs whose only violation was entering the country illegally.
“There is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out,” he said. Others, he added, believe people should be allowed to stay if they work in jobs such as landscaping or hospitality and, in some cases, pay taxes.
Trump said he would “love to do something on immigration” with congressional Democrats, who will control the House and Senate next year. He proposed a deal for some people who have lived in the United States for 10 or 15 years, while continuing to remove people convicted of serious crimes, The Guardian reported. “I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said.
His remarks came days after Republicans lost ground in the midterms, including in heavily Latino areas of South Texas that had shifted toward the party two years earlier. CBS News reported that many voters linked the reversal at least partly to the immigration crackdown. In exit polling, 58% of voters said the administration’s actions on immigration had gone too far, though voters trusted Republicans over Democrats to handle the issue by 43% to 41%.
It remains unclear whether enforcement policy will change. On Friday, Trump replaced White House chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, a hardliner who has shaped the administration’s immigration agenda. Since Trump returned to office, illegal border crossings have fallen sharply, while arrests and deportations within the country have increased. A large share of those arrested have no criminal records beyond immigration offenses. The administration says it targets public safety threats and has warned that anyone in the country illegally can be deported.
The interview ranged beyond immigration. According to The Guardian, Trump also blamed the war with Iran and higher petrol prices for Republican losses, while saying he would make the decision to launch the military campaign again. “You can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said. He said he was not looking to escalate the conflict after the midterms.
Trump acknowledged that his administration may have communicated its economic record poorly. “I think it was bad messaging, maybe by me,” he said. He also told 60 Minutes he did not oppose safeguards for artificial intelligence but did not want them to leave the United States in “a deep second position,” The Guardian reported.
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