President Trump conceded in a Sunday interview that his aggressive deportation agenda may have backfired politically, suggesting the crackdown could have contributed to the Republican Party's sweeping losses in the midterm elections.
In a televised appearance on 60 Minutes following the electoral rout, CBS's Ross Douthat pressed the president on whether his immigration policies cost the GOP control of Congress. Trump offered a nuanced assessment, saying the approach “both helped and hurt.”
“I think I got an A plus for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out, but I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs that created one violation for breaking of the law, that was what they came into the country illegally,” Trump said.
The president acknowledged a deep national divide over how to treat long-term undocumented residents who have otherwise stayed out of trouble. “There is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out,” he said, “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.”
Trump went further, characterizing his own policy as “too tough” and expressing a willingness to work with the incoming Democratic majority, which will control both chambers in January. The remarks come as Democrats prepare to flex their new power, with leadership clashes and potential impeachment threats already looming.
Polls suggest the administration’s immigration stance has become a political liability. An Associated Press-NORC survey in July found only 39 percent approval for the administration’s handling of immigration, a 10-point drop from the start of Trump’s second term. Public sentiment toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has soured further following the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, which triggered nationwide protests.
While many Democrats have blasted the president’s actions, some Republicans had warned early on that the crackdown could hurt the party. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who lost his primary to Trump-backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and then fell to Democrat James Talarico in November, voiced concerns in October.
“Once you start deporting people who have otherwise been here without incident for 15, 20 years, that’s a gray zone that I think where you find a lot of division of opinion,” Cornyn said.
Talarico, who ran a campaign sharply critical of ICE’s tactics, called the agency’s recent conduct “a secret police force” during an October town hall. “We need Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this country, but that’s not what we’re seeing,” he said.
The political fallout from Trump’s immigration agenda is likely to shape the upcoming Congress, with Latino voters powering the Democratic surge and expanding the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. As the president signals a possible shift, his party’s losses have already triggered internal debates over strategy and leadership, with cabinet shake-up rumors circulating.
