PALM BEACH, Florida – Though he was elected with a mandate to close the U.S. border and crack down on illegal immigration, President Donald Trump on Sunday said his deportation policy has been “too tough.”
Appearing on “60 Minutes,” CBS correspondent Ross Douthat asked Trump point blank: “So you think your deportation policy went too far?”
Trump responded: “I think it was too tough.”
Douthat pressed: “It was too tough?”
“I think it might be too tough, yeah,” Trump reiterated.
WATCH:
If President Trump softens on immigration enforcement, it will be a disaster:
60 Minutes: “So you think your deportation policy went too far?
President Trump: “I think it was too tough.”
60 Minutes: “It was too tough?”
President Trump “I think it might be too tough, yeah.” https://t.co/L44SDmrS1T
— Steve Cortes (@SteveCortes) November 8, 2026
When asked if the crackdown hurt him, the president indicated: “I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A+ for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out.
“But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that – that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.
“Now, there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out. And there’s a large part of the country that think that they should be allowed to stay if they’re good people working in a landscaping company, or workin’ in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes. And there’s a large group of people who think that they should be allowed to stay.”
WATCH:
President Trump says his administration’s deportation policy was “too tough.” https://t.co/4EQsg4QA8c https://t.co/JDcqgRAySp
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 9, 2026
Trump explained he was willing to work with Democrats on a deal to get legal status for some illegal aliens, saying: “When you go into a hotel and you have a woman that’s worked there as, you know, as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress, a lotta good things, great jobs, and all of a sudden, they’re being taken outta the country, it’s tough. It’s a tough thing. But there’s a group of people that I would say on the sort of pretty far right that would like everybody taken out.”
“Then there’s also people that are more modified on that. In other words, 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.”
Steve Cortes, a former adviser to both Trump and Vice President JD Vance, was not thrilled with the president’s remarks, saying: “If President Trump softens on immigration enforcement, it will be a disaster.”
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