President Trump, who once called amnesty “suicide for Republicans,” now says he was too tough on illegal immigrants over the past two years and hopes to “work something out” with Democrats on immigration when they take control of Congress next year.
But his decision to also elevate his top hardline immigration aide, Stephen Miller, to be his chief of staff, quickly undermined his overture.
“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,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the man in line to become Senate majority leader. “That’s not a course correction. That’s a promotion.”
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Mr. Trump, in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” said his mass deportation campaign was “too tough” in scooping up long-time illegal immigrants who lacked serious criminal records.
He said he’s already getting calls from Democrats who want to strike a deal, and he identified the issue as the top area where cooperation might be possible with the incoming Democrat-led Congress.
“I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said.
Mr. Trump didn’t mention an amnesty specifically in his CBS interview but conservatives said that’s what Democrats have been seeking for the past 20 years, so that’s the ground they expect to fight over if Mr. Trump is serious about a deal.
And a 2013 social media post where Mr. Trump called amnesty “suicide for Republicans” was gaining new traction Monday.
“Amnesty is never the right answer,” said Rosemary Jenks, policy director at the Immigration Accountability Project, and a veteran of the last half-dozen amnesty legislation battles in Congress. “The polls clearly showed that immigration was the single issue that Republicans did well on.”
She was referring to the exit polling in Tuesday’s election, where Democrats led or were tied on every issue surveyed save for immigration. Despite a majority saying Mr. Trump went “too far,” they still gave the GOP a slight edge in handling of immigration overall.
Immigrant rights advocates still saw the election as a mandate, pointing to shifts in Hispanic voting, particularly in border communities in Texas, which helped decapitate that state’s GOP leadership.
Jennie Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, called Mr. Trump’s comments “a golden opportunity to make history.”
“The president’s comments are heartening. We hope he follows through and comes to the table with Democrats and Republicans,” she said.
Rep. Maria Salazar, a Florida Republican whose re-election race was headed to a recount after final results showed her leading by less than half a percentage point, said she’s already got a starting point for the president.
Ms. Salazar, working with Democrats, has written the Dignity Act, which would grant a full path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants and a long-term legal status for others who arrived before the Biden administration. It also removes some hurdles to legal immigration.
“You can surpass Reagan’s legacy by delivering a historic immigration reform. This is your moment,” she told the president on social media.
Mr. Trump has proposed an immigration legalization before.
In 2018, he worked on a deal with Democrats that would have included citizenship rights for illegal immigrant “Dreamers” in exchange for funding for his border wall, new limits to the chain of family migration and eliminating the diversity visa lottery, which doles out green cards based purely on chance.
That overture faltered when Democrats balked at the wall money, and demanded the amnesty be broadened.
Ms. Jenks said she expects a repeat if Mr. Trump does pursue a new deal this time.
“I just don’t see the Democrats going along with anything except a full-scale, anybody-gets-it amnesty, and I have a really hard time seeing Trump go along with that,” she said.
In addition to 2018, immigration deals have faltered in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2022.
The last time a broad amnesty was approved was in 1996, under Reagan.
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