Trump says deportations were "too tough" and hurt him. Days earlier, he promoted their architect.
In a "60 Minutes" interview, Trump floated legal status for undocumented workers after 57% of midterm voters said enforcement went too far.
President Donald Trump said his mass-deportation policy was "too tough" and hurt him in last week's midterms, in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday, NBC News reported. The interview was recorded Friday, the same day Trump promoted Stephen Miller, the architect of that policy, to White House chief of staff.
What Trump said
Trump said the administration had been too harsh in removing undocumented immigrants who had not committed crimes. "I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally," he said, according to NBC News.
He said "a large group of people" believe immigrants who are "good people, working in a landscaping company or working in a hotel or doing something ... and, in some cases, paying taxes," should be "allowed to stay." Asked whether a deal with Democrats could look like legal status for undocumented workers, he said yes. He added that people on "the pretty far right" would "like everybody taken out," and that some of them are in his administration.
NBC's account describes no change in enforcement. The president is describing his own politics, and his administration's statements about its immigration policy are claims until they show up in orders, memos or numbers.
The man now running the White House
Trump announced Friday that Miller, his deputy chief of staff, will take over from Susie Wiles on Monday, NBC News reported. In May 2025, NBC reported, Miller berated and threatened to fire ICE officials over what he saw as paltry arrest numbers and demanded they detain 3,000 people a day.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on Trump to fire Miller. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the move showed Trump "learned nothing from his historic defeat." Miller pledged Trump his "absolute loyalty."
What voters said, and what Trump said a year ago
Most midterm voters told pollsters enforcement has gone too far. In NBC's initial exit poll results, 57% said so, 23% said it has been about right and 21% said it has not gone far enough.
That is a reversal from the president's last "60 Minutes" interview. In November 2025, he told CBS the raids "haven't gone far enough." CBS noted then that landscapers, farmers, nannies, construction workers and families of U.S. service members had been caught up in them. When correspondent Norah O'Donnell raised landscapers, Trump answered, "No, landscapers who are criminals," PolitiFact reported.
What it means for workers
The workers Trump named, in landscaping and hotels, are the ones raids have pulled out of job sites. WorkersRights.News has covered that toll in the Fresno area and Bakersfield.
Legal status for undocumented workers would need Congress, which Democrats will control in January. Watch whether Miller's first weeks change who ICE targets, and whether Trump's openness to a deal turns into a bill.
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