President Donald Trump said his mass deportation push went too far, costing him in the midterm elections, and he wants to work with Democrats on an immigration deal.
"I think it was too tough," Trump said
of his immigration enforcement efforts during a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Nov. 8, adding: “I think, ultimately, that hurt me."
Trump noted that immigration agents have swept up many people who don’t have criminal records, and that there is a “large part of the country that think they should be allowed to stay." He mentioned people working in landscaping or hotel jobs who have been in the country for years.
“I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” Trump said of immigration reform, adding that: "When you go into a hotel and you have a woman that's worked there, you know, as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress - a lot of good things - and all of a sudden they're being taken out of the country, it's tough. It's a tough thing."
The “60 minutes” interview was recorded on Nov. 6, the same day Trump elevated immigration hawk Stephen Miller as his chief of staff. Miller is the architect of Trump’s immigration crackdown, and Democrats said his appointment sends the opposite signal on an immigration deal.
“Trump says his immigration crackdown went too far. Apparently, his solution was to put the man responsible for it in charge of the White House,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said on social media after the interview aired. “That’s not a course correction. That’s a promotion.”
Trump had nodded toward a softer stance on immigration in the past amid backlash to his aggressive approach, which has been central to all three of his presidential campaigns.
Last year, as deportations ramped up, the president said on social media that he was hearing complaints from the business community and suggested he was changing course.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump said in a social media post, adding “This is not good… Changes are coming!”
Trump also took a more conciliatory tone after two people were shot and killed by federal agents during immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis earlier this year, saying he wanted a “softer touch.” The president later fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was overseeing the operation.
Trump's deportation efforts have been at the heart of his second White House stint, including deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland and other communities to help with crime and immigration enforcement. Despite protests from local leaders, immigration agents have flooded cities and sent deportees to a notorious prison in El Salvador and countries that aren't their own.
The moves have been challenged in court and prompted mass protests that intensified after the events in Minneapolis, where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot to death by federal agents, sparking outrage.
Polls show Trump’s immigration tactics are unpopular, and Latinos swung sharply toward Democrats in the election after Trump made gains with them during his 2024 campaign.
Yet any effort to reach a deal on undocumented immigrants without criminal records is likely to be met with sharp resistance from some on the right, who are already criticizing the president’s comments.
“And now amnesty. Seriously?” conservative media figure Megyn Kelly said on social media Nov. 6.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Too tough': Trump floats immigration deal, says issue 'hurt' him
