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Days after midterm elections that saw Democrats win landslide victories in Congress and flip a number of statehouses across the U.S., President Donald Trump admitted his administration\u2019s immigration crackdown \u201cis too tough\u201d and suggested that he could \u201cwork something out\u201d with Democrats on immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to do something on immigration,\u201d the president said on the CBS News program \u201c60 Minutes\u201d in a nearly half-hour interview in Washington with correspondent Ross Douthat, a Catholic and well-known political analyst. The wide-ranging interview, which aired Nov. 8, started with a look at the main issues that voters went to the polls about including the war with Iran and immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think ultimately that hurt me,\u201d Trump said, regarding his mass deportation push. He said the policy was \u201ctoo tough,\u201d in response to Douthat\u2019s questions about the impact of his immigration policies<\/a> on the election and whether he would pursue a deal with Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it (immigration) 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,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that \u2014 that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n The Nov. 3 election saw voters deliver historic losses to Trump and the Republicans with the GOP suffering staggering losses not seen since the 1948 elections. As of Nov. 9, the U.S. Senate is now at 54 Democrats and 44 Republicans, with two races too close to call; and the U.S. House has 254 Democrats and 164 Republicans with 17 races yet to be called.<\/p>\n Trump told Douthat, \u201cWhen you go into a hotel and you have a woman that\u2019s worked there as\u2013 you know, as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress \u2014 a lotta good things, great jobs \u2014 and all of a sudden, they\u2019re being taken outta the country, it\u2019s tough,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough thing. But there\u2019s a group of people that I would say, on the sort of pretty far right, that would like everybody taken out.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThere\u2019s also people that are more modified on that. In other words, get the killers out. Get all the\u2013 the rough ones out. Get the drug dealers out. But let the people that are here \u2014 and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years \u2014 work a deal for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump said he believed Democrats in Congress would be interested in achieving an immigration deal and that \u201cpeople have already called me.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Migration Policy Institute\u2019s latest \u201cFact Sheet\u201d report, 35% of the 980,000 people deported under the Trump administration \u2014 from January 2025 through July 2026 \u2014 involved people intercepted and turned around at the border. Another 34% were initially arrested at the border and then deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after ICE processed them for removal within the U.S. The remaining 31% were people arrested in the U.S. and most likely to have had years of residing in U.S. communities.<\/p>\n The October 2026 report also noted an increase in domestic arrests from 8,000 per month in the first three months of Trump\u2019s term to 19,000 per month from May through July 2026.<\/p>\n It added that of those deported by ICE, 61% had been in the U.S. at least two years and 15% had lived in the U.S. 10 years or more. Of these immigrants, 71% had never been convicted of a crime, and 61% of those in the U.S. 10 years or more had no criminal convictions.<\/p>\n Catholics who work with migrants have expressed surprise and caution over the president\u2019s words.<\/p>\n Dominican Father Brendan Curran, the Chicago-based promoter of justice and peace for the Dominicans of Canada and the United States, said he was \u201cdelightfully surprised by the tone and content\u201d of what he called the president\u2019s rhetoric on \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet us be clear,\u201d Father Curran told OSV News Nov. 9. \u201cNo matter who is the leadership, no matter what party or their track record, it always has to deal with detail and actual real negotiation. What we\u2019re delighted by is that the rhetoric is speaking of something more healthy, more productive and more reflective of what we see.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of folks in our communities, especially and particularly Catholics, want decency, dignity, held above all as a highlight and priority value,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd moving in this direction as the president indicated, in part, on recognizing decency and dignity needs to be adjusted, is an absolute sign of respect for what people are asking for.\u201d<\/p>\n The head of the Catholic-run Coalition for Public and Spiritual Leadership, Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, expressed reservations, and pointed out the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown continues.<\/p>\n The coalition sued the Department of Homeland Security a year ago and was eventually granted daily entry into the ICE facility in the Chicago<\/a> suburb of Broadview to give detainees holy Communion and spiritual care.<\/p>\n The Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a lawsuit Oct. 5 on similar grounds, saying ICE \u201cprohibits Catholic priests from offering, and Catholic detainees from receiving, the sacraments of confession and communion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe people who are being detained are most often mothers and fathers, siblings, grandparents, people who\u2019ve been ripped and torn away from their loved ones in their parishes, in their communities,\u201d Okinczyc-Cruz said, calling the experience \u201cshattering\u201d to witness.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n