Trump open to immigration deal, calls crackdown ‘too tough,’ despite Miller promotion

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday his mass deportation campaign, which helped propel his return to the Oval Office, had gone too far and potentially led to Republicans losing the U.S. House and Senate in the midterm elections.

“I think it might be too tough, yeah,” Trump said in the interview with Ross Douthat of “60 Minutes”. “And a lot of people would say that it's great. But a lot of people think it's too tough.” 

He added that he thinks his immigration crackdown “both helped and hurt” him in the midterm elections.

“When you go into a hotel and you say, ‘Let me see your pass,’ and you have a woman that's worked there as a, you know, as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress, a lotta good things, great job, and all of a sudden, they're being taken out of the country, it's tough,” Trump said. “It's a tough thing.”

The president’s description of his mass deportation campaign was in stark contrast with his decision to elevate Stephen Miller, the main architect of his immigration crackdown, to White House chief of staff — the first major shakeup since the midterm elections. 

Trump added that he is willing to work with Democrats on legislation to provide legal status for immigrants who work in certain sectors, such as hospitality. The Trump administration has carried out one of the largest de-legalization efforts in recent history, stripping more than 1 million immigrants of their humanitarian and temporary legal statuses. 

Trump said that he believes Democrats would be interested in addressing long-term immigrants in the country, but he did not specify which lawmakers were interested in a deal. 

“I think that's something that's actually doable,” Trump said of working with Democrats on immigration policy. 

Miller backlash

It’s unclear how any dealmaking with Democrats will proceed with Miller, who was behind efforts to strip millions of legal immigrants of their Temporary Protected Status as well as the effort to redefine the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, leading White House staff.  

Trade associations representing businesses in hospitality, agriculture and construction have said the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has harmed their businesses and the broader economy. They also slammed the president’s decision to promote Miller.

"One of the main reasons why the Republicans lost the midterm elections was in big part because of Stephen Miller's cruelty on immigration policies,” Benny Melendez, vice chair of the South Texas Builders Association, said in a statement. “I don't understand why Trump would appoint him as Chief of Staff for the White House. It seems like they now want to lose the White House in the 2028 election.”