Trump Admits Deportation Push Was “Too Tough,” Cost GOP Votes
(MENAFN) Donald Trump has conceded that the immigration crackdown of his first term went too far, and that the backlash damaged his party in the midterm elections.
In an interview with a major U.S. television network’s flagship news program, the president suggested his administration’s deportation drive may have overreached and said it carried a political price for him.
“It was too tough. I think it might be too tough, yeah,” he said.
“Ultimately, that hurt me.”
The interview was taped Friday, only hours before the announcement that Stephen Miller, a longtime adviser known for his hardline stance on immigration, would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.
Trump also recognized that many Americans believe immigrants who entered the country unlawfully, but have spent years working and building lives in the United States, should be permitted to stay. He signaled there may be room for a compromise with Democrats on immigration policy.
Citing immigrants employed in hotels, restaurants and other industries, Trump said it was hard to watch longtime workers with settled lives and careers be removed from the country.
“When you go into a hotel 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 lot of good things, great jobs, and all of a sudden they’re being taken out of the country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing,” he said.
“But there’s a group of people that I would say on the sort of pretty far right that would like everybody taken out.”
Asked whether people inside his administration hold that harder line, Trump acknowledged that “there are a lot of those people.”
He nonetheless pointed to a more moderate path: prioritizing the deportation of criminals, violent offenders and drug dealers, while weighing arrangements for immigrants who have lived and worked in the country for 10 or 15 years.
In an interview with a major U.S. television network’s flagship news program, the president suggested his administration’s deportation drive may have overreached and said it carried a political price for him.
“It was too tough. I think it might be too tough, yeah,” he said.
“Ultimately, that hurt me.”
The interview was taped Friday, only hours before the announcement that Stephen Miller, a longtime adviser known for his hardline stance on immigration, would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.
Trump also recognized that many Americans believe immigrants who entered the country unlawfully, but have spent years working and building lives in the United States, should be permitted to stay. He signaled there may be room for a compromise with Democrats on immigration policy.
Citing immigrants employed in hotels, restaurants and other industries, Trump said it was hard to watch longtime workers with settled lives and careers be removed from the country.
“When you go into a hotel 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 lot of good things, great jobs, and all of a sudden they’re being taken out of the country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing,” he said.
“But there’s a group of people that I would say on the sort of pretty far right that would like everybody taken out.”
Asked whether people inside his administration hold that harder line, Trump acknowledged that “there are a lot of those people.”
He nonetheless pointed to a more moderate path: prioritizing the deportation of criminals, violent offenders and drug dealers, while weighing arrangements for immigrants who have lived and worked in the country for 10 or 15 years.
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