Mullin Reveals His Red Line For An Immigration Deal With Dems

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Monday that the Trump administration will not make an immigration deal with Democrats if it means giving amnesty to illegal immigrants.

Mullin made the comments after President Donald Trump said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday that his mass deportation campaign may have gone too far and that he would “love” to make an immigration deal with Democrats.

That deal, Trump said, may offer some form of legal status to non-criminal illegal immigrants who are working and paying taxes.

Speaking to reporters at a counter-drone conference in Maryland, Mullin emphasized that the administration’s “approach to law enforcement … isn’t going to change.”

While he promised zero amnesty, Mullin said he is open to a deal that would give permanent legal status to DACA recipients.

“We’re never going to allow amnesty to happen,” Mullin said. “Now, if we want to have an immigration reform to where we can look at DACA and figure out a way that these individuals can become maybe legal permanent citizens or something like this, that’ll be up to Congress.”

Mullin has told the president that “a lot of Democrats” have contacted him about working together, he said. The Homeland Security secretary clarified that he and the president have not had a “conversation about changing the policy [on immigration].”

“I’ve let the president know that those calls are coming in, and the president has said, ‘Let’s start working with them and then let’s meet at some point,’” Mullin said.

Many prominent immigration hawks were quick to criticize the president for his apparent backtracking on aggressive immigration raids and support of giving legal status to some illegal immigrants.

Political consultant Ryan Gidursky said a bipartisan deal scaling back Trump’s deportation effort “will kill the party.”

Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren responded to a clip of the interview with two words: “Come again?”

Josh Hammer, senior counsel at the Article III Project, said Trump came to the “wrong conclusion from this election.”

The White House has addressed some of the criticism that has followed Trump’s “60 Minutes” interview, hitting back at a post that argued Trump was advocating for an “amnesty deal.”

“Wrong. The word ‘amnesty’ was never even said in this entire exchange,” the White House Rapid Response account on X wrote.