White House tells House GOP to avoid mass deportation talk ahead of midterms

White House and top House Republican officials have told GOP members to avoid discussing “mass deportations” ahead of the midterm elections, backing away from public discussion of a central campaign pledge of President Donald Trump.

The advice hit as Republican prospects appear dim ahead of the November voting.

When Republican members of Congress gathered in Doral, Fla., for a retreat Tuesday, James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff, and Rep. Lisa C. McClain (R., Mich.), the chair of the House Republican Conference, instructed them to eschew talking about sweeping deportations of undocumented people and instead focus only on deportations of violent criminals, according to three people with knowledge of the remarks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the closed-door event.

Trump ran on a pledge of enacting “mass deportations,” vowing to launch “the largest deportation in the history of our country.” At one point on the campaign trail, he told Time magazine he planned to deport 15 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants — a figure larger than the actual number of immigrants in the country illegally, according to most experts. The president has since tiptoed away from the plan, at times calling for protections for undocumented hospitality and agriculture workers, and suggesting that the administration first focus on deporting people who have committed violent crimes.

Blair told the crowd they should now focus on highlighting the administration’s removal of criminals, according to two of the people present, and explained that there is greater public support for doing so than for “mass deportations.”

The remarks were first reported by Axios.

For much of last year, the administration leaned hard into the idea that anyone in the country illegally was a legitimate target for being deported. The White House last year pressured the Department of Homeland Security to increase its deportation numbers, while DHS, under Secretary Kristi L. Noem, embarked on high-profile roundups of migrants — many of whom had no criminal background. By the middle of last summer, more than half of those removed from the country had no criminal conviction, according to a Washington Post analysis of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

Last week, Trump fired Noem, tapping Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R., Okla.) for the role as the White House seeks to minimize DHS-related controversy ahead of the midterms.

Trump still receives high marks in polls for his administration’s efforts to effectively halt illegal border crossings, but a growing majority of Americans have soured on his deportation strategy, with 58% saying last month he has gone too far deporting undocumented immigrants, a rise of eight percentage points since last fall, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. The survey found that a slightly higher number, 62%, opposed the aggressive tactics of ICE after immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.

A senior Republican aide told the Post on Tuesday that the party’s messaging would be “about deporting violent criminals and not mass deportations.”

A fourth person with knowledge of Blair’s remarks said he was asked to discuss immigration going into the midterms, and told members to “highlight that Democrats want to reopen the borders and oppose” Republicans’ efforts to deport violent undocumented immigrants. Blair also suggested an emphasis on Democratic support for sanctuary cities, the person said, and lack of cooperation with the administration on deportations.

In a statement to the Post, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “Nobody is changing the Administration’s immigration enforcement agenda,” and that Trump’s “highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities.”

Jackson said roughly 3 million undocumented immigrants have left the United States because of Trump’s policies, “either through forced deportation or self-deportation.” That figure has been disputed by outside experts who say the administration has exaggerated the number of people who have left the country voluntarily.

Asked last month whether he supported the deportations of immigrants who have otherwise been law-abiding but are in the country illegally — a position his MAGA base has urged the administration to adopt — Trump said: “I want to see everybody” deported “but we’re focusing on the criminals. We’re focusing on killers.”