Trump Suggests Deportation Policy May Have Been 'Too Tough', Open to Immigration Deal with Democrats

Days after the Republican Party lost control of the House and Senate, US President Donald Trump said that his deportation policy might have been “too tough” for his voters. In his first major interview after the midterm election debacle, he added that he thinks he will be able to work with the Democrats to finalise some kind of immigration deal. In an interaction with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday, Trump said: “I think it might be too tough, yeah… The deal would be we would work something out. And I think it’s something — I think that’s something that’s actually doable.” However, the president did not go into the details of what that deal would look like — and shortly after recording the interview on Friday, named Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff. Miller has been the key architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. Criticising the move, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Miller’s appointment was a “promotion” and not a corrective measure against the crackdown. “Trump says his immigration crackdown went too far. Apparently, his solution was to put the man responsible for it in charge of the White House. That’s not a course correction. That’s a promotion,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying. The oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security is a priority for the new Congress, the Democrats have said. The immigration crackdown was a prominent feature of Trump’s return to office. The drive involved major operations and a spiralling number of arrests in multiple cities. According to Reuters, Miller had set a goal of 3,000 arrests a day, with masked immigration officers combing towns across the country. Arrests of people with no criminal record and long years in the US rose, Reuters added. During protests against the operations, two US citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – were killed by federal officers. Asked if he would endorse a potential successor, the US president said “probably” but “not necessarily”. “We have a tremendous bench. I have so many people that I have great relationships with,” Trump said in the interview to CBS. Asked about probable candidates other than Vice President JD Vance, Trump only mentioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is seen as a possible 2028 contender. “I think Marco’s great,” Trump said. “But there are many others and I’d rather not mention their names. There’s some senators that are excellent. I know ’em all, I like ’em a lot. So I may or may not get involved. I don’t know. Maybe I’m better off not getting involved,” Trump said. — with inputs from Associated Press