President Donald Trump has acknowledged that his immigration crackdown and deportation campaign may have gone too far, while expressing a willingness to seek common ground with Democrats.
In an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Trump described his deportation policy as “too tough.”
Asked by interviewer Ross Douthat which issue he would most like to address alongside Democrats, Trump replied, “I’d love to do something on immigration.”
Trump said his immigration platform had produced mixed political results for Republicans.
While voters broadly supported his efforts to secure the southern border, he said public opinion was far 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.
At the same time, he conceded that his administration had pursued immigrants who were otherwise law-abiding and whose primary violation 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 seeing longtime workers detained and deported.
US President Donald Trump has revealed that he believes immigration enforcement and deportations in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes
CBS 60 Minutes interviewer Ross Douthat spoke with President Donald Trump after his terrible midterm election losses this past week
“When you go into a hotel, and you have a woman that’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 mark a notable change in tone from a president who made mass deportation a central promise of his immigration agenda.
Trump also admitted that some hardliners in his administration supported removing nearly every undocumented immigrant, regardless of individual circumstances.
When asked whether those officials worked in the White House, Trump answered, “Yes.”
After the interview was recorded, Trump appointed longtime adviser Stephen Miller, a prominent immigration hardliner, as his new White House chief of staff.
The decision has already drawn criticism from Democrats.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is widely expected to become the next speaker, said he opposed Trump’s choice of Miller for the position.
Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Jeffries said he could not envision working with Miller, contrasting him with former White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, with whom he said Democrats 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.
Miller’s appointment on Friday prompted an angry reaction from liberals, who view him as a driving force behind some of Trump’s most aggressive 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 described Miller as a “vile thug” and called his appointment an insult to voters who backed Democrats in Tuesday’s elections.
“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.”
Even so, Trump said he believed a deal with Democrats—who made significant gains in Tuesday’s elections—could include some form of legal status for undocumented immigrants who have spent years working in the United States.
“I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said during the 60 Minutes interview.
