In his interview with Ross Douthat, the former New York Times writer, Trump appeared to be in political retreat after Democrats won sizeable majorities in Congress after a “blue tsunami" on Election Day.
“I’d love to do something on immigration,” Trump, who made immigration crackdown a signature issue, told the CBS News interviewer.
Trump said the compromise would be to “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.”
The Blaze reported President Trump “says he may work on an amnesty deal with Democrats.”
“Wrong,” Rapid Response 47, the official White House Press Office social media account, replied. “The word ‘amnesty’ was never even said in this entire exchange.”
On Monday, at a White House press briefing, President Trump also pushed back on that word. “There won’t be amnesty,” he told reporters.
One problem with those denials is nobody seems to believe it after watching the “60 Minutes” interview.
“Well done, Mr. President,” Rep. Maria Salazar, the Florida Republican, wrote on X.
“What you described on 60 Minutes is what the Dignity Act is all about,” Salazar, referring to her amnesty bill, wrote.
Rep. Salazar, who won re-election last week, is known for her soft stance on illegal immigration. During her re-election campaign, AFN reported on Salazar’s fiery campaign ad, directed at President Trump, in which she said Hispanics “feel betrayed” by him.
“Be careful what your advisors are telling you about immigration policies,” Salazar, looking into the camera, states in the campaign ad.
Another reaction to President Trump’s interview with Douthat came from Rep. Chip Roy.
“Any amnesty ‘deal’ puts our country LAST,” he wrote on X.
“The American people should NOT have to trade amnesty for permanently secure borders and fixing immigration law loopholes,” Roy further stated.
When AFN sought comment from the White House about the "amnesty" controversy, it was directed to President Trump's press briefing comments on Monday.
ICE ordered to make 3,000 arrests daily
The number of illegal immigrants currently living in the United States is impossible to know. Pew Research estimates that number is 14 million. That number tracks closely with 13.5 million estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies.
FAIR, the Federation for Immigration Reform, estimates that number is 18.6 million, citing a surge of 4 million who were welcomed and allowed to remain during the Biden administration.
With that many illegal immigrants living within the U.S. borders, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was following White House orders to find and arrest 3,000 illegals daily.
That order came from Stephen Miller, a top advisor to President Trump.
Miller appeared to be following through on a campaign promise of mass deportations when he confirmed that daily goal to Fox News in May 2025.
Miller was named chief of staff last week, replacing Susie Wiles, after Republicans took a beating in the midterms.
Art Arthur, of the Center for Immigration Studies, told American Family News the president seems to be recognizing the reality of deportation.
“That it needs to be done in such a way that it appreciates the humanity of everyone involved in the system: the alien, the agents, members of the community at large. So that part of the president's statement wasn't really a surprise,” Arthur told AFN.
