President Donald Trump drew swift criticism from some of his own supporters after suggesting in a Sunday night interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he could support a deal allowing certain undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for years to stay and work legally.
“I’d love to do something about immigration,” Trump told “60 Minutes.” He described a possible approach: “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 pointed to workers in service jobs as an example. “If they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or workin’ in a hotel, or doing something … 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 lotta good things, great jobs, and all of a sudden, they’re being taken outta the country, it’s tough,” Trump said.
The remarks drew immediate criticism from some conservative commentators and at least one local elected official. Nalin Haley, son of Republican politician Nikki Haley, called the idea “a complete and total betrayal to his own movement and to the country.”
Streamer Tami Lehren argued that long-term undocumented immigrants should not receive favorable treatment simply for having avoided detection. “This notion that because an illegal has evaded the law for 15 years they get some kind of a pass or a gold star is utterly ridiculous,” she said, adding that such immigrants are “still: Driving down American wages Taking American jobs Sending their money to their country.”
Randy Westlund, the mayor of Post Falls, Idaho’s second-largest city, said the comments were especially disappointing given the party’s recent election losses. “Hearing this hurts worse than losing the midterms,” Westlund said.
What the Poll Found
A new poll of 875 registered voters found that 78 percent of U.S. voters want Trump to deport undocumented immigrants who have committed a crime after entering the country, a category that includes offenses such as identity theft, document fraud and tax evasion.
When the poll asked a separate question about deporting “immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but who otherwise have not committed a crime,” the results were closer: 48 percent still supported deportation, while 41 percent said they “strongly” or “somewhat” oppose deporting that group. Among Republicans, support for deportation in that scenario remained high — 78 percent of Republican men and 66 percent of Republican women said they want those immigrants deported as well.
Context from the Midterms
Trump’s comments come weeks after a midterm election cycle in which Democratic candidates in several states distanced themselves from more permissive immigration positions associated with the party’s left flank. In Pennsylvania, Paige Cognetti, who defeated a Republican congressman in the northeast part of the state, called the Biden administration’s immigration record “really terrible.” In New Hampshire, senator-elect Chris Pappas described it as “out of control” and said it “made America less safe.”
In Texas, governor-elect Gina Hinojosa credited Trump’s border policies directly. “There is no question that crossings are way down, and there is no question it is because of President Trump,” she said. In Michigan, progressive senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed acknowledged his party’s earlier approach was flawed, saying on “60 Minutes,” “We got that wrong.”
The moderate-aligned SearchLight Institute noted that in Texas, immigration was a comparatively significant issue, one of the few where Republican candidate Paxton had an advantage over his opponent Talarico, though Texas Latino voters were no more likely than voters overall to name immigration as a top concern.
Pressure From Other Directions
At the same time, Trump faces pressure in the opposite direction. Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch has reportedly used network hosts to advocate for a broader amnesty, and business groups, including roofing contractors who rely on foreign labor, have also pushed for legal status for undocumented workers already employed in the country.
Trump has separately named immigration hawk Stephen Miller as his incoming Chief of Staff, a move some observers see as running counter to the amnesty idea raised in the “60 Minutes” interview.
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