Trump Opens Door to Immigration Deal, but Republicans Set One Condition: No Amnesty

After President Donald Trump floated a possible deal for immigrants who have been in the United States for a long time, some Senate Republicans say they are open to revisiting immigration policy. But they insist on one hard condition — amnesty is completely off the table.

In an interview with '60 Minutes' that aired over the weekend, Trump said his administration's mass deportation and enforcement policies might be 'too tough'. 'Get the killers out, get the rapists out, get all the rough ones out, get the drug dealers out,' Trump said. 'But let the people that are here — and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years — work a deal for them.'

The administration quickly sought to clarify Trump's comments. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin affirmed shortly afterwards that there would be 'no amnesty'.

Republicans, after sweeping midterm losses, are willing to reopen the immigration policy debate, the report said. A Fox News poll published in September found that 53% of voters believed Trump's immigration policy had gone too far.

Senator Jim Banks of Indiana told Fox News Digital: 'I trust President Trump. He's gonna do what's right, but as far as I'm concerned, amnesty is off the table. I'll never go for it.'

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, one of the administration's sharper Republican critics on immigration policy who is retiring at the end of the year, said that as early as March he texted Trump and suggested it would be the 'perfect time' to codify all the measures that have effectively sealed the border and use it as an opportunity to get merit-based immigration reform.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: 'Because he secured the borders, he has credibility on the issue, and he has expressed a willingness.' He added: 'I have not seen anything yet that's being proposed, but we will certainly hear them out, and if there's something he wants to do there, have a conversation about it.'

Just before Trump won the 2024 election, the Senate, then controlled by Democrats, was on the cusp of a bipartisan immigration deal. The deal, negotiated by Senators James Lankford, Chris Murphy and former Senator Kyrsten Sinema, would have funnelled billions of dollars into border security and shut the border to most asylum seekers, among several other changes. But conservatives balked, and Trump's criticism from the campaign trail ultimately killed it.

Lankford is expected to become the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee next year. 'If I'm ranking on Homeland Security, I'm right in the thick of it, whether you like it or not,' he said.

Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina said enforcement must not be done the way the administration started under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, pointing to a lack of training and proper methodologies. He too said there should be 'no amnesty at all', adding that amnesty was one of Ronald Reagan's significant regrets and that Trump would not want to make that mistake.