President of the United States rejects amnesty and advocates expulsion of immigrants

O President of the United States defended the mass expulsion of immigrants and opposed any amnesty for those who live illegally in the country, days after recognizing that politics was “too harsh.”.

“There will be no amnesty,” Trump told reporters in the White House. “Did anyone suggest: ‘Will there be an amnesty’? No, but... They came. They knew the law,” the Republican added on Monday.

The Head of State defended the immigration policy of the Administration as “very strong”.

Asked if he had talked to Stephen Miller – newly promoted chief of staff and architect of immigration policy – about any changes, Trump replied no.

“My policy has not changed,” the President said, adding that the focus remains to deport “the worst of the worst.”.

On Sunday, a few days after the defeat of the party in the mid-term elections, Trump acknowledged, in an interview with the U.S. CBS, that the policy of mass expulsions of immigrants had been “too harsh.”.

In the mid-term elections, largely won by the Democrats on November 3, the Hispanic voters, who had contributed to Trump's re-election, turned their backs on him, disillusioned with the indiscriminate character of expulsions.

Trump's turnaround comes after Internal Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also stated on Monday that, although he received calls from Democrats interested in talking about immigration policy, he strongly opposed any agreement that included amnesty.

“I warned the President that these calls are coming. And the president said: ‘Let’s start working with them and then meet at some point’. So this is the limit of the conversation,” Mullin said.

“We didn’t have any specific talk about politics,” he added.

Mullin, who said he worked with Democrats while he was in the two chambers of the US parliament, including immigration reform, said he believed that a bipartisan approach is the only viable solution.

But the Secretary of Homeland Security also opposed any kind of agreement that included regularisation of the status of persons living illegally in the US.

“ I was working on immigration reform when I was in the House and when I was in the Senate. I think the only way to really achieve this is through a bipartisan approach. But amnesty will never be a solution. We will never allow amnesty to happen. So, period,” Mullin said.

There are officially 1.45 million people of Portuguese origin residing in the United States, according to the latest census of 2020.

In the latest report by the United States Immigration and Customs Services, 69 Portuguese were repatriated in 2024, nine more than the previous year.

In February 2025, the then Secretary of State of the Portuguese Communities assumed in the Assembly of the Republic that there are no exact figures on the Portuguese at risk of deportation from the US.

José Cesário recalled that 360 had already exceeded the 90 days of temporary stay granted under the ‘visa waiver’ (program that allows business trips or tourism without prior visa) and that the U.S. Senate (high chamber of parliament) had identified about 4,000 as outside the period of stay.

Cesarius added at the same time that 24 Portuguese were detained in the United States.