Trump White House Tells Republicans to Back Off ‘Mass Deportation’ Messaging

(Evan Vucci/AP photo)

The Trump White House is reportedly urging House Republicans to cease touting the mass deportation strategy it has championed ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.

According to Axios’s Katie Santaliz and Marc Caputo, “White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair privately urged House Republicans on Tuesday to stop emphasizing ‘mass deportations’ and instead focus their messaging on removing violent criminals.”

From Santaliz and Caputo’s story:

Blair delivered the message during a policy listening session with House Republicans at their annual retreat in Doral, Florida. He encouraged members to focus on deporting violent offenders rather than defending the broader concept of mass removals. The advice signals a recalibration by the White House — and reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump’s immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate.

President Donald Trump and his allies have long touted immigration and border security as one of his top priorities, and Trump moved back into the White House last year after promising to initiate a mass deportation program on the campaign trail.

His advantage on the issue has shrunk, however, amid a rash of controversial stories, and especially the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both of whom were shot by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Trump decided to move on from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week. In a segment about her departure, CNN data analyst Harry Enten observed that “Kristi Noem was hurting Donald Trump in office on his key, one of his key, top issues that got him elected president of the United States.”

“I mean, just take a look at Trump’s net approval rating on immigration. You go back a little bit over a year ago, he was on the plus side of the ledger. Look at that. Two thumbs up, plus seven points. But again, down he goes in large part because [of] Kristi’s efforts, look at this, minus 17 points on the net approval rating on a key issue for Donald Trump, one that got him elected to a second term,” marveled Enten. “And among independents, he went from plus three, plus three net approval on immigration all the way down to minus 30 points. I mean, my goodness gracious, on an issue that independents had trusted Donald Trump on over Kamala Harris and Kristi Noem’s efforts, simply put, killed, crushed Donald Trump on such a key issue for him.”

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