President Donald Trump suggested in a Sunday interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that he may be open to working with Democrats on an amnesty deal for some illegal immigrants, a notable shift from the hardline deportation agenda he campaigned on in 2024.
Speaking with Ross Douthat after Republican losses at the ballot box on Tuesday, Trump said his deportation policy might have gone too far. “I think it might be too tough, yeah. And a lotta people would say that it’s great. But a lotta people think it’s too tough,” he said.
Trump pointed to frustration among some Americans over the deportation of illegal immigrants working in hotels and landscaping jobs, and noted there are people who believe immigrants who have avoided deportation for “10 or 15 years” should be allowed to stay. Asked whether he could work with Democrats on the issue, he called a deal “actually doable.”
The comments mark a reversal from the candidate who told a cheering crowd at a July 2024 rally he would “begin the largest deportation operation in the history of our country,” and from Republican National Convention delegates who waved signs reading “Mass Deportations Now.”
What the polling shows
Despite the party’s rough night on Tuesday, exit polling suggests immigration remained a relative strength for Republicans. An NBC News exit poll found 43 percent of voters said the GOP was “better able to handle immigration,” compared with 41 percent who said Democrats. Another poll found that among the 73 percent of voters who called immigration a “crucial or major factor” in their vote, Republicans won that group 51 percent to 47 percent.
An Axios analysis of campaign advertising found Democrats largely retreated from the issue in the general election after emphasizing it in primaries. “ICE” was the third-most featured policy topic in Democratic primary ads for 2026, the analysis found, but fell to 35th among policy issues featured in Democratic general-election ads.
The DIGNIDAD Act
While Trump has not detailed what an amnesty arrangement would look like, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar’s DIGNIDAD Act offers one template already circulating among Republicans. The bill would create a seven-year program allowing illegal immigrants who arrived before Dec. 31, 2020, to remain in the country, including some with DUI or DWI convictions. It would halt deportation proceedings for applicants with pending cases and allow some previously deported immigrants to apply for re-entry if they would have otherwise qualified.
Salazar has framed the legislation as a way to shore up Hispanic support for Republicans. But eight of the bill’s co-sponsors lost their races on Tuesday, and Salazar’s own race remains too close to call and is headed to a recount.
California’s lesson from 1986
Critics of a renewed amnesty push point to California as a cautionary tale. Ronald Reagan’s 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granted amnesty to roughly 3 million illegal immigrants in exchange for promised border security. George H.W. Bush carried California in 1988, but no Republican presidential candidate has won the state since. Opponents of a new deal argue that outcome shows amnesty did not translate into durable political gains for the GOP in a state where the policy’s effects were most concentrated.
Salazar has acknowledged that her bill is intended as a pathway toward eventual citizenship. Trump himself warned against that outcome in a 2013 tweet, writing: “Amnesty is suicide for Republicans. Not one of those 12 million who broke our laws will vote Republican. Obama is laughing at @GOP.”
The White House has not released further details on what shape a potential deal with Democrats would take.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login