The key facts

  • Trump called his migration policy 'too harsh,' but gave the border an 'A plus'
  • In the first 18 months of the second term, 980,000 people were deported; in July ICE detained about 50,000 — a record for the term
  • 65% of Americans believe ICE 'went too far,' but a majority of Republicans still support the policy

An admission after the elections

US President Donald Trump, in an interview for the 60 Minutes program on CBS after the 2026 midterm elections, admitted that his deportation policy had been excessively harsh. According to him, migration policy both 'helped and hurt' him. This was reported by Kun.uz citing the interview transcript.

What exactly the president admitted

Trump emphasized that on border security he deserves, by his own assessment, an 'A plus,' and that voters highly rated the removal of 'bad people' from the country. However, he admitted that the detention of people who have jobs and whose only offense was illegal entry caused public discontent.

Quote

'A significant part of the country's population believes they should be deported. An even larger part believes that if these are good people working for a cleaning company, a hotel, or somewhere else, sometimes paying taxes, they should be allowed to stay. I think that [the previous policy] was too harsh,' Trump said.

The scale of deportations

Mass deportations were one of Trump's main campaign promises. Budget documents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) set a target of deporting up to a million people per year; Congress allocated about $45 billion for detaining those arrested and nearly $30 billion for expanding ICE's staff. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in the first 18 months of the second term the Department of Homeland Security deported 980,000 people, 69% of whom were initially detained at the border. In July, ICE detained about 50,000 people — the maximum of the second term.

A split in public opinion

Society evaluates the policy differently. According to a January Fox News poll, 52% of respondents approved of Trump's border security actions, but only 45% supported his migration policy overall — a picture that matches his own assessment: the border gets an 'A plus,' while the detention of working people with no criminal record provokes protest. According to a Marist poll, 65% of Americans believe ICE 'went too far'; at the same time, a majority of Republicans still support the course.