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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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President Donald Trump has acknowledged that his administration may have been "too tough" in its immigration crackdown, days after elevating one of the policy's most prominent architects, Stephen Miller, to the role of White House chief of staff.
In an interview with 60 Minutes following heavy Republican losses in the midterm elections, Trump defended his record on the border and the removal of immigrants he described as dangerous. "I got an A+ for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out," he said.
The president added that his administration had also removed people with "good jobs" whose violation was entering the United States illegally. He cited people working in landscaping and hotels and who, in some cases, were paying taxes.
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"I think it was too tough," Trump said. "I think it might be too tough. And a lot of people would say that it's great, but a lot of people think it's too tough. I think, ultimately, that hurt me."
Trump also said he would "love to do something on immigration" with congressional Democrats, who are set to control the House and Senate next year after a bruising midterm victory over the GOP.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email outside standard working hours.
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More than half of voters said the administration's immigration enforcement had gone too far, while six in 10 disapproved of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's performance. But immigration ranked well behind the economy and concerns about democracy, with 14 percent calling it the country's most important issue, according to exit polls.
While Trump has acknowledged that elements of his immigration crackdown may have hurt him politically, it remains unclear whether there will be any change in enforcement policy.
Immigration Policies Miller Has Championed
The president's remarks stand in contrast to much of the rhetoric used by Miller, a longtime Trump adviser who was the chief architect behind the administration's hard-line immigration policy.
On Friday, Trump tapped Miller—who has served in the second Trump administration as the deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser—to replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff.
During Trump's first term, Miller advocated for the travel restrictions affecting several Muslim-majority countries, the administration's zero-tolerance policy that resulted in thousands of family separations, reductions in refugee admissions and tighter rules for legal immigrants who received public benefits.
Since Trump returned to office, Miller has pushed for at least 3,000 immigration arrests a day and backed a broader expansion of enforcement, including the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, third-country deportations and proposals to use the National Guard to support mass removals.
He also championed the immigration provisions of Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provided roughly $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security. His elevation comes as the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress prepares to investigate the administration's immigration enforcement policies.
Democrats have signaled that Miller will face congressional scrutiny when they take control of Congress in January, with Representative Robert Garcia of California, who is set to lead the House Oversight Committee, saying Miller's role in the administration's immigration crackdown warrants investigation.
What Miller Has Said About Immigration
Miller has repeatedly supported expanding arrests and deportations since before Trump returned to the White House on January 20, 2025.
Miller told Jake Tapper on CNN on January 28, 2025, that ICE would prioritize terrorists, public safety threats and national security threats, but he made it clear that the agency's efforts would not be restricted to those groups.
When asked whether immigration officials would prioritize people convicted of violent crimes or pursue anyone living in the country illegally, Miller said, "Yes, but we're not going to immunize everybody that Joe Biden let in."
Miller also described an early target of 75 arrests per day for each ICE field office as a "floor, not a ceiling."
"The goal is to arrest at least that many but hopefully many more," Miller said. He also said the administration intended to enlist state and local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement to "significantly increase the arrest number."
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By May 2025, the administration was seeking at least 3,000 immigration arrests a day. Miller publicly discussed that target, while he and then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pressed ICE officials to reach it.
Miller also strongly backed Trump's flagship domestic policy and tax-cut legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill, which provided a major infusion of funding for ICE and the administration's immigration crackdown.
"The BBB will increase by orders of magnitude the scope, scale and speed of removing illegal and criminal aliens from the United States," Miller wrote on X. "For that reason alone, it's the most essential piece of legislation currently under consideration in the entire Western World, in generations."
He separately described the measure as containing "the most significant border security and deportation effort in history."
Miller also defended the administration's approach amid protests against immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles in June 2025. He called the demonstrations an "organized insurrection" and accused California's government of having "aided and abetted" mass illegal immigration.
Miller faced backlash after calling Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse whom immigration agents fatally shot in Minneapolis earlier this year, a "domestic terrorist" and an "assassin" who had "tried to murder federal agents."
In July, Miller said restricting migrants' access to financial services could encourage people to leave voluntarily.
"Illegal aliens have credit cards, they have bank accounts and they're paid with direct deposit," Miller told Fox News. "So illegal aliens fully participate in the commercial systems, the financial systems of America. Shutting that down is a massive engine for deportation."
What Miller Said After His Promotion
There was little indication of a rhetorical shift when Miller spoke after his promotion to chief of staff.
Appearing alongside Trump on Friday, Miller praised the president for having "saved our border from annihilation." The new chief of staff added, "I pledge to you, Mr. President, my absolute loyalty, my unwavering commitment, and my total devotion to your success and the success of this country."
Adam Klein, a co-founder of Globali.ai and a former senior Department of Homeland Security official, said Miller's appointment raises concerns about the direction of immigration policy and the influence he could exert across government agencies.
"Given the influence he has already had over immigration policy, I find this development concerning, particularly because of what the position allows him to do across the government," Klein told Newsweek.
"Immigration law doesn't have to change for the experience of immigrants and employers to change dramatically," he continued, warning that agencies such as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services could make immigration benefits harder to obtain through narrower eligibility interpretations, additional evidence requirements and increased scrutiny. "The benefit remains available under the law, but obtaining it becomes another matter."
A spokesperson for United We Dream Action, an immigrant advocacy group, said in a statement: "Stephen Miller's appointment is both a reminder and a warning to Democrats that the stakes working people are up against have not disappeared simply because of their recent victories. What's ahead will be a deliberate effort from the Trump Administration to double down on their brutal agenda and test the Democratic Party's resolve to deliver real results for working families."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Shakeema Edwards.
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