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President Donald Trump said Monday night that his administration’s mass deportation program has not put the same pressure on migrant workers as it has on people he has described as murderers and drug traffickers.
In a phone call with C-SPAN, Trump was asked whether law-abiding people who pay taxes and have lived in the United States for a long time should be deported the same as migrants who have committed serious crimes.
“We certainly didn’t put the same pressure on them as we did on murderers or drug dealers,” Trump said.
“Frankly, one of our big problems is the psychiatric institutions that are dumped into our country,” he added. “Very dangerous people have been released into our country, to put it mildly. So we haven’t put the same pressure on them, obviously. And, you know, we call them the worst of the worst. We haven’t put the same pressure on the waitresses and the farm workers and so on. Not even close.”
Trump admits immigration enforcement may have been too ‘tough’ in first interview since midterms
President Donald Trump said his administration’s mass deportation program has not put the same pressure on migrant workers as it has on people he has described as murderers and drug traffickers. (Reuters)
Trump’s comments come after he floated the idea of his administration working with Democrats on a deal for some immigrants who have lived in the United States illegally for more than a decade after Republicans lost majorities in both houses of Congress in last week’s midterm elections.
In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, host Ross Douthat asked Trump if he was willing to work with Democrats on immigration as he enters the home stretch of his presidency.
“I would love to do something on immigration,” the president responded.
Asked whether immigration enforcement was hurting Republicans in the midterms, Trump said he thought it both helped and hurt, praising his administration’s border enforcement while acknowledging criticism of expulsions of people with jobs.
“But I’m hurt because we also took people who had good jobs,” Trump said.
Trump said some Americans think immigrants who entered the country illegally should be deported, while others think longtime workers should be allowed to stay, particularly those who work in landscaping or hospitality and pay taxes.
“When you walk into a hotel and you have a woman working there as a housekeeper, as a maid this way and that, as a waitress, a lot of good things, great jobs, and all of a sudden they’re kicked out of the country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing,” Trump said, adding that people on the far right want deportations whether the immigrant living in the country illegally is working or not.
WHITE HOUSE DOUBLES AFTER TRUMP ANGERS BASE BY DELIVING FLOATING ILLEGAL FOREIGN DEAL WITH DEMS
President Donald Trump has floated the idea of his administration working with Democrats on a deal for illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for more than a decade. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Trump signaled in the interview his desire to “make a deal” for people who have been in the United States illegally for “10 or 15 years.”
However, Trump said Monday during a White House press briefing that “there will be no amnesty” and that his policies “have not changed.”
The president was asked on the call with C-SPAN whether he expected Republicans to vote against impeaching Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
The House could take up Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.,’s impeachment resolution against Hegseth as soon as Tuesday.
When asked what his reaction would be if some Republicans voted to impeach Hegseth, Trump said he would be “disappointed.”
HEGSETH FACES THREAT OF BIPARTISAN IMPEACHMENT AFTER IRAN WAR GETS BLAME FOR GOP MID-TERM SLAUGHTER
President Donald Trump said during a White House press briefing that “there will be no amnesty” and that his policies “have not changed.” (Christopher Dilts/Getty Images)
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Trump also said “it depends” when asked when to expect the war with Iran to end.
“Maybe we could eliminate it quickly or in a short period of time, but not long,” he said.
“Now the question is whether I could do it quickly or not,” Trump continued. “The reason I’m doing it this way is because, as you know, the Prime Minister was in the Oval Office today, talking with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, basically the neighbors who were pretty badly attacked, by the way. But in talking to them, they’d rather do it this way than another blow, which would be about five times bigger than the first blow, which basically wiped them out. So, I would like to do that. do it this way too.”
Trump added that he believed Iran “would like to make a deal, and we’ll see whether that happens or not.”
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