President Donald Trump suggested Sunday night that he might approve amnesty for many migrants currently working in jobs that could otherwise be filled by Americans.
The interview took place shortly before Trump dismissed his establishment-oriented chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and replaced her with Stephen Miller, his pro-American populist adviser.
Speaking with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Trump said he wanted to address immigration and outlined the possibility of an amnesty agreement with pro-migration Democrats:
Get the killers out. Get all the rough ones out. Get the drug dealers out. But let the people that are here, and in some cases here for ten and 15 years, work a deal for them.
He suggested that undocumented migrants holding jobs could be permitted to remain:
Now, there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out. And there’s a large part of the country that think that 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. And there’s a large group of people who think that they should be allowed to stay.
…
That’s something that’s actually doable … 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, great jobs, and all of a sudden, they’re being taken out of the country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing.
Trump has repeatedly floated vague immigration agreements during negotiations with business groups and Democratic lawmakers, only to abandon them after facing backlash from his pro-enforcement base of ordinary Americans.
He and his family are now facing numerous hostile investigations and threats from the Democrats’ House and Senate majorities. That situation creates a political incentive to encourage hopes for a sweeping amnesty agreement that could strengthen Democratic power for a generation.
Trump also told 60 Minutes that many of his supporters oppose amnesty. “There’s a group of people that I would say on the sort of pretty far right that would like everybody taken out,” he said. That group likely includes his new chief of staff, Stephen Miller, as well as more than half of the electorate, according to polling.
For instance, a Harvard Harris poll conducted in February 2026 found that 57 percent of Americans overall—and 79 percent of Republicans—want all undocumented migrants sent home. That broad support for enforcement helped Trump win elections in 2016 and 2024 and remains central to his political influence ahead of his retirement after the 2028 election.
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However, push polls conducted by pro-migration groups can drive support for deportation below 50 percent by adding conditions and concessions that may be difficult to enforce, including requirements that migrants speak English or repay back taxes.
Trump’s willingness to discuss amnesty also draws attention to what critics describe as the Democrats’ concealed radical agenda, just days after their sweeping election victory. Democrats won in part by downplaying their support for a radical, unpopular, and wealth-shifting amnesty plan.
Many Americans understand migration as a tool investors and employers use to suppress wages and facilitate workplace abuse. Wall Street investors, for example, can collect higher franchise fees and rents when hotel operators bring in low-wage Indian migrants to clean rooms and work in kitchens.
Trump’s new chief of staff, Miller, could shift the administration’s deportation strategy away from highly visible public arrests and toward behind-the-scenes pressure on employers, banks, and landlords. Trump’s immigration adviser, Tom Homan, has advocated that approach for years.
Political discussion of amnesty can also immediately encourage migrants to move north, creating news events that attract public attention.
Democrats have a long record of rejecting limited compromises while pursuing a so-called comprehensive amnesty that could marginalize Republicans in U.S. politics. Their broader ambitions have repeatedly failed, in part because of deep divisions within their coalition.
Trump described the impact of his immigration policy on the midterm elections:
I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A+ for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out. But I get hurt because we also took [illegal migrant] people that had good jobs, … [had] one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.
“I think [the deportation policy] might be too tough, yeah,” he said.
Trump lost the election in part because his base failed to turn out amid anger over his decision to launch a war against Iran.
Latino voters shifted sharply against Republican candidates, although substantial evidence also indicates that immigration helped motivate many Republican supporters to vote.
Talk of amnesty could also encourage employers to retain their large undocumented workforces, undermining the wage growth Trump needs to rebuild support among swing voters who stayed home during the 2026 election.
