President Donald J. Trump said in an Oval Office interview today with CBS News that his approach towards illegal immigration was probably too heavy handed.
Trump made the remarks just a few days after the Republican Party lost a ton of U.S. House and Senate seats, along with several governorships and other races.
"I think it both helped and hurt," Trump answered. "I think I got an A-plus for closing up the border…I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out."
However, Trump conceded that many illegal immigrants within the country were "good" people, with his policies facing some backlash.
"But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that — that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally. Now, there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out. And there's a large part of the country that think that they should be allowed to stay if they're good people working in a landscaping company, or working in a hotel, or doing something, right? And in some cases, paying taxes. And there's a large group of people who think that they should be allowed to stay."
Trump was then asked if his policies went too far, to which he replied, "I think it was — too tough…I think it might be too tough, yeah," Trump responded, adding, "And I think ultimately that hurt me."
He said that he hoped that many incoming Democrats, including the new Senator from Texas, James Talarico, would be willing to work with him on the issues surrounding border enforcement and illegal immigration.
