In an interview with 60 Minutes, President Trump said his administration’s hardline approach to immigration enforcement on deportations may have been “too harsh” to pursue people in the country for a decade or more.
The president spoke with 60 Minutes correspondent Ross Douthat three days after Republicans suffered crushing defeats in the midterm elections. Support for the party has fallen in South Texas and other heavily Latino areas that shifted toward the GOP two years ago — a reversal that many voters have seen. linked at least partly to Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Mr Trump said his crackdown on immigration “both helped and hurt” him in the election. He believes he “got an A+ for closing the border” and got “very high marks for getting the bad guys out.”
“But I’m hurt because we also took people who had good jobs, which created a violation or infraction of the law, which is that they entered the country illegally,” the president continued. “Now a lot of the country thinks they should be deported. And there’s a lot of the country that thinks they should be allowed to stay if they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or working in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes.”
He continued: “I think it was too hard.”
“A lot of people would say it’s great, but a lot of people think it’s too hard,” he said.
The president also said he “would love to do something on immigration” with congressional Democrats, who will control the House and Senate starting next year.
It is unclear whether the Trump administration plans to change its immigration enforcement strategy. On Friday, Mr. Trump replaced White House chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, a hard-liner who widely regarded as an architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The president’s 2024 victory was fueled in part by voter dissatisfaction with former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, including increased unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, illegal border crossings have increased. fell spectacularly. Federal authorities have also increased arrests and expulsions within the country, with the number of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reaching record levels. Miller pushed the agency aiming for 3,000 arrests per day last year.
A large proportion of those arrested not have a criminal record beyond immigration offences. The Trump administration has long said its priority is stopping “the worst first,” while warning that anyone in the United States illegally can be arrested and deported.
And many of the administration’s immigration tactics have drawn attention, including its citywide crackdown in Minneapolis and elsewhereIt is the vehicle stopsIt is detention practices and his practice of expel certain migrants to places other than their country of origin.
Some Republicans fought back, with Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar from South Florida warning in September that many Hispanics who voted for Mr. Trump in 2024 “feel betrayed.”
In exit polls58% think the Trump administration’s actions on immigration have gone too far. Still, on the question of which party voters think can best handle immigration, voters trust Republicans (43%) slightly more than Democrats (41%).
The administration has defended its approach, saying it targets threats to public safety.
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