White House vows to keep up immigration crackdown after midterms defeat

US President Donald Trump’s administration has vowed not to change course on its mass deportation plans after last week’s midterm elections defeat. “This administration will not slow down its efforts to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens who terrorise our communities,” the White House said in a statement to the BBC. Trump’s promotion on Friday of immigration hawk Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff had signalled no climbdown from the administration on border security.

Exit polls indicate immigration was the third most important issue for midterm voters, after the economy and the state of democracy. In historically conservative states like Texas, a swing of Latino voters towards Democrats helped seal the party’s landslide congressional majorities. But multiple US officials sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS that the administration had put the midterm losses down to concerns about the economy, affordability and the war with Iran, rather than its immigration crackdown.

The White House maintained on Sunday there would be no change of direction. “There has never been a President stronger on immigration enforcement than President Trump,” said White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also said it would forge ahead. “ICE is NOT backing away or slowing down,” a DHS spokesperson told CBS.

“Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will continue to enforce our nation’s laws and remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets.” Five ways Trump has changed immigration in the US Following Tuesday’s results, Vice-President JD Vance had appeared receptive to adjusting their immigration strategy. “I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement – by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labour, for instance,” Vance wrote in a lengthy online post reflecting on the results.

But the White House’s posture appears to have hardened after Trump promoted Stephen Miller to chief of staff on Friday. Miller is widely seen as the architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy during the first and second Trump presidencies. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources told CBS that in recent weeks officials have been instructed to aim for about 2,700 arrests of illegal immigrants per day, an increase from an earlier 2,000 daily arrest target.

Enforcement sweeps this year spurred anti-ICE demonstrations in cities including Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. In Minneapolis, two US protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot by immigration agents.