President Donald Trump has said he believes immigration enforcement and deportations during his second term may have gone too far, suggesting the issue could provide an opportunity to work with Democrats during the final two years of his presidency.
In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that aired Sunday, Trump acknowledged that his deportation policy had been “too tough.”
Asked by interviewer Ross Douthat which issue he would like to address with Democrats, Trump replied, “I’d love to do something on immigration.”
Trump said his immigration agenda had been a double-edged sword for Republicans. While voters strongly supported his efforts to secure the southern border, he said they were more divided over large-scale deportations.
“I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A+ for closing up the border,” Trump said.
He also conceded that his administration had deported immigrants who were otherwise law-abiding and whose only offense was entering the country illegally.
“I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs,” Trump said, pointing to immigrants employed in hotels, landscaping and other industries, some of whom paid taxes.
The president suggested that many Americans were uneasy watching longtime workers being detained and removed from the United States.
US President Donald Trump said in a CBS 60 Minutes interview that he believes immigration enforcement and deportations went too far
CBS 60 Minutes interviewer Ross Douthat spoke with President Donald Trump after his poor midterm election results this past week
“When you go into a hotel, and you have a woman who’s worked there as … a maid, as a cleaner … as a waitress … and all of a sudden, they’re being taken outta the country, it’s tough,” Trump said.
The comments marked a notable change in tone for a president who had made mass deportations a central part of his immigration platform.
Trump also acknowledged that some immigration hardliners in his administration supported removing nearly every undocumented immigrant, regardless of individual circumstances.
Asked whether those officials worked in his White House, Trump answered, “Yes.”
Since the interview was recorded, Trump has chosen longtime aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, to serve as his new White House chief of staff.
The appointment has already drawn criticism from Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to become the next Speaker, said he opposed Trump’s decision to select Miller as chief of staff.
Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Jeffries said he did not expect to work with Miller, contrasting him with former White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, with whom he said he had at times found common ground.
“There’s not going to be any opportunity, certainly, to work with Stephen Miller and what he represents,” Jeffries added.
After Miller was named chief of staff on Friday, liberal critics reacted angrily to the appointment, portraying him as a driving force behind some of Trump’s most hard-line immigration policies.
“Trump making Stephen Miller Chief of Staff is a giant FU to the entire country that just voted against their barbarism, cruelty and hate,” left-wing commentator Krystal Ball wrote.
“It’s also a sign that in spite of what he said, he has zero interest in moderating or working with Democrats to deliver for the people.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom called Miller a “vile thug” and described the appointment as an insult to voters who supported Democrats on Tuesday.
“Miller cooked up the sadistic mass deportation regime that ripped apart families and trampled basic civil rights. Innocent people are dead because of him. Voters rejected his cruelty and extremism. This is sick.”
Despite the backlash, Trump said a potential agreement with Democrats, who won major victories in Tuesday’s elections, could include granting some form of legal status to undocumented immigrants who have worked in the United States for many years.
“I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said during the 60 Minutes interview.