Fox News host Laura Ingraham delivered a blunt warning to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Monday night. She told him the Republican base would not support any immigration deal with Democrats that amounts to amnesty.
Ingraham opened the interview on “The Ingraham Angle” by asking Mullin to promise viewers, and the 77 million Americans who voted for President Donald Trump, that there had been no change in the president’s immigration policy.
The exchange followed Trump’s “60 Minutes” interview with Ross Douthat, which aired Sunday. In it, the president said his deportation policy may have been too tough and said he would like to work out a deal with Democrats. Trump suggested that some form of legal status could be on the table for illegal immigrants who have been in the country for years, are working and are paying taxes.
The remarks set off alarm bells among conservatives. On Monday, Trump walked them back and told reporters at the White House there would be no amnesty.
Ingraham reminded Mullin that the president promised mass deportations, which she said remain wildly popular among Republican voters.
She pressed him on whether he had been told to “lighten up” on enforcement and focus only on illegal immigrants with criminal records.
“Not at all,” Mullin replied.
When Mullin began discussing possible reforms, including how ports of entry work, Ingraham cut in and asked why that should be Republicans’ takeaway from the election.
Mullin said that before the administration considered any such steps, it would make sure the base was on board. Ingraham interrupted him with a warning.
“They’re not with you,” she said, repeating the line for emphasis. She added that she wanted the administration to succeed.
Earlier Monday, Mullin told reporters at a conference in Maryland that “a lot of Democrats” had reached out about working together on immigration and that Trump had encouraged him to start those conversations.
He insisted, however, that amnesty is off the table.
“We’re never going to allow amnesty to happen,” Mullin said, calling it a “full stop.”
He said Congress could look at a path to permanent legal status for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but added that he and Trump had not discussed changing the administration’s enforcement policies.
The White House also pushed back on reports that Trump had endorsed amnesty. Its rapid response account noted that the word was never used in the “60 Minutes” exchange.
Conservatives in Congress quickly drew their own lines. The House Freedom Caucus said Monday it rejects any effort to grant amnesty to illegal immigrants.
The debate comes days after Trump named Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration agenda, as his new White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles.
