Skip to content
Amidst the intense fight over the Save America Act and immigration enforcement, some in the Trump administration are caving to the left. According to Axios, White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair instructed Republicans in Congress at their annual retreat to stop pushing for “mass deportations” and instead focus on only deporting violent criminals.
This move was framed by Axios as a “recalibration” of Trump’s immigration policy due to Democrats and some Republicans seeing mass deportations as “overly sweeping” and “indiscriminate”. They see it as a PR move by the White House to distance Republicans from a contentious issue.
Moreover, this signaling about moving away from mass deportations was echoed by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who said in an interview with NBC at the same event that Republicans are in “course correction mode.”
Although the White House responded in a statement to the media that “Nobody is changing the Administration’s immigration enforcement agenda,” two separate sources have told Texans for Strong Borders that administration officials have directed ICE to only arrest and detain illegal aliens with criminal records or pending criminal proceedings, at least until after the 2026 midterm elections.
It is important to note that this is a policy that was originally spearheaded by the Obama administration and resulted in a reduction in interior removals from 188,422 in 2011 to just 65,332 in 2016. The first Trump administration reversed this policy, and interior removals climbed (albeit short of the 2011 peak) until removal operations slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
For conservatives, this signals something deeper and more treacherous—an attempt by subversive elements in the administration to pry the President away from his campaign promises and his duty to the country.
Since the presidential transition in late 2024, big business lobbies close to Republicans have pushed back on the President’s promise of “the largest mass deportation operation in American history,” insisting that they need the plentiful, cheap labor to keep their businesses running. Of course, this is illegal, as hiring illegal aliens has been a federal crime since 1986.
On the other side of the aisle, the left’s goal is to gain amnesty for illegals and prevent as many deportations as possible. That’s why they have attacked ICE, launched protests, and spread lies and exaggerations about immigration enforcement operations.
All of those attacks are designed to create the illusion that the American people support their ideas. In reality, the electorate does not, as evidenced by Strong Borders’ own polling on the issue. Americans want an end to the corrupt corporations taking advantage of cheap foreign labor. They want safer cities and neighborhoods. They want all the illegal aliens Biden brought in gone.
Establishment infiltrators compound the effect of the left’s anti-ICE violence and rhetoric by trying to convince the President to scale down deportations, and that it will politically benefit him to do so.
If they succeed, the result will be catastrophic for America. The Trump administration will have broken its biggest promise. Trump could also suffer politically, with his base losing enthusiasm and allowing Democrats to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Americans will suffer from higher costs, fewer jobs, and increased crime.
As the special interests in Washington continue to urge President Trump and Republicans in Congress to wind down mass deportations, we at Texans for Strong Borders continue to work alongside the Mass Deportation Coalition to urge the President to go further and achieve 1 million interior removals in 2026, expanding upwards through the latter half of the presidential term.
We ask all patriots who support mass deportation efforts to communicate to their elected officials that this is a non-negotiable issue vital to the survival of our republic as we know it.