Trump sends puzzling mixed messages on immigration

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Nov 9, 2026

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President Donald Trump is sending puzzling mixed messages on immigration, admitting in a new interview that his mass deportation campaign is “too tough” while handing untold new power to Stephen Miller, the hard-line main architect of the harsh crackdown.

Trump made a very rare concession in a "60 Minutes" interview when he said he went too far on immigration enforcement and that he believes he could forge a compromise on the flashpoint issue with ascendant congressional Democrats who swept to a historic landslide in the midterms.

“I think it might be too tough, yeah,” Trump said in the interview that aired late Sunday.

“The deal would be we would work something out. And I think it’s something — I think that’s something that’s actually doable,” he said, adding that there should be a way to accommodate many undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the United States for years.

But hours after taping the interview Friday, the unpredictable MAGA leader also promoted his far right-wing, anti-immigration adviser Miller as his new White House chief of staff.

Miller has repeatedly denounced immigration in general, opposed effort to open a path to citizenship as unacceptable “amnesty” and called for ever-tougher measures to deport as many immigrants as possible and make the lives of those living in the U.S. as difficult as possible.

Democrats quickly pointed out what they called the hypocrisy of Trump’s zig-zagging moves.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the presumptive incoming speaker of the House, derided Miller as “a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist” and called on Trump to dump him.

“We need to put an end to Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine,” Jeffries told CBS Monday. “And then we can find a path forward to make sure that immigration enforcement is fair, it’s just and humane."

Despite the criticism, if Trump means what he says about easing his mass deportation campaign, he might be able to hammer out some kind of deal with Democrats that could vastly transform the lives of millions of immigrants.

He mentioned that he does not necessarily oppose allowing some undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S., even as he vows to continue aggressively rounding up and deporting others whom he brands criminals.

“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,” Trump said in the interview.

He conceded that many or most Americans believe immigrants who are “good people, working in a landscaping company or working in a hotel or doing something ... (and) paying taxes,” should be legally permitted to stay in the U.S.

Democrats have long pushed for some kind of compromise on immigration that would permit longstanding undocumented immigrants to come out of the shadows and legal status for so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Such a deal might be more possible now that more Democrats now acknowledge the need to continue Trump’s tough border security restrictions, which have virtually eliminated undocumented immigrants from crossing the southern border.

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