Mullin Says Trump Told Him to Work With Democrats on Immigration, Rules Out Amnesty

Since Democrats won control of Congress in last week's midterms, the White House has been sending two messages on immigration at once: a softer tone from the president and a hard line from his lieutenants. Today, Nov. 9, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin laid out where the limits are.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a counter-drone conference in Forest Heights, Maryland, Mullin said "a lot of Democrats" have called him about working on immigration legislation in the new Congress.

"I've let the president know that those calls are coming in, and the president has said, 'Let's start working with them and then let's meet at some point,'" Mullin said. "That's the extent of the conversation."

He was just as direct about what has not changed. Asked whether he and Trump have discussed altering enforcement policy, Mullin said: "No, we haven't had that conversation." On amnesty: "We're never gonna allow amnesty to happen. So that's a full stop."

What Trump said on 60 Minutes

The opening came in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday and was filmed Friday. Trump said his deportation campaign helped and hurt Republicans.

"I think I got an A-plus for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out," he said. "But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs that created one violation or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally."

Trump described a split inside his own coalition. Some on "the pretty far right" want everyone removed, he said, while others want the "killers," "drug dealers" and "rough ones" out and a deal worked out for people who have been here 10 or 15 years. He did not use the word amnesty.

The electorate was not happy with the status quo. NBC News exit polls found voters favored Republicans over Democrats on immigration 43% to 41%, with 15% saying neither party. But 58% said the administration had gone too far on enforcement.

Miller still sits next to the president

The conciliatory words arrived alongside a personnel move pointing the other way. Trump named Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration crackdown, as White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles. Mullin called Miller an "excellent choice" in a social media post last week.

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said Miller is "probably extremely unlikely to advise the president to sign a bad immigration bill or a sweeping amnesty."

Vice President JD Vance sketched the other likely lane in a post on X last Wednesday. He said he is open to changing enforcement "by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor," and that "anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you." A White House official told the Daily Caller the administration "will never allow for mass amnesty."

The DACA opening

Mullin did leave one door ajar. He said Congress could look at DACA and "figure out a way that these individuals can become maybe legal permanent citizens or something like this, that'll be up to Congress."

That is a change in tone for the department. In a March post on X, DHS said DACA "does not confer any form of legal status in this country" and warned recipients could be arrested and deported. DHS said ICE arrested 264 DACA recipients nationwide between Jan. 20 and Sept. 28, 2025, and that more than 92% had been charged with or convicted of a crime.

Mullin did not say where the line falls between a legal pathway for DACA recipients and the amnesty he rejects.

What Democrats are asking for

Democrats are not waiting for the White House to define terms. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is on track to become Speaker, told CBS on Monday that talks should begin with the Dream and Promise Act, restoring protections for DACA and Temporary Protected Status recipients. He called that "a foundation for more broader work," and said reforming ICE and ending mass deportation would be part of the discussion.

Further left, Claire Valdez, a Democratic Socialist who just won a New York House seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, said Sunday that congressional Democrats "have a mandate" to abolish ICE. Many incoming Democrats campaigned against ICE raids.

That sets up a gap. The White House says enforcement is not on the table. Jeffries says ending mass deportation is.

What comes next

The new Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2027. Democrats will hold both chambers, and Trump keeps the veto, which he has already noted he can use on bills Democrats send him.

It is also unclear how many Republicans would back a deal. The question for the next two months is whether the meeting Trump told Mullin to set up actually happens, and whether anything beyond DACA and employer enforcement is on the agenda when it does.