Why Codified Security Is Not Amnesty

Everybody, take a breath. The hyperventilating isn't necessary.

On 60 Minutes, President Trump said he'd "love to do something on immigration." He said he earned an "A+ for closing up the border" and "very high marks for getting the bad ones out," but that enforcement also hurt him when it swept up people "that had good jobs, that created one violation," which was coming in illegally.

What he never said was the word amnesty. A White House official made the same point Monday: "The president never said the word amnesty." The same official added the line I care most about: "We want Democrats to show their cards."

Good. Make them.

What he did describe, according to Fox News, is a willingness to "work a deal" for people who've been here "10 and 15 years" and haven't committed other crimes. Think of the woman cleaning hotel rooms and paying taxes. "It's a tough thing," he said. That's a narrow group, and it isn't the group that broke the border.

Here's what reform must preserve, and what I'd demand before supporting a word of it:

1. A border that stays slammed shut.

2. The toughest enforcement actually possible, starting with the worst of the worst.

3. States required to participate.

4. Joint cooperation with local authorities written into law.

5. Fixed communication between federal, state, and local agencies.

6. A cleared case backlog.

7. American sovereignty, preserved.

Notice what's missing from that list: a free pass.

Now the critics. Steve Cortes said an amnesty deal with a Democratic Congress "would be a bigger betrayal than starting the foolish war in Iran." Anthony Cumia warned it "absolutely guarantees that Texas never again votes Republican." Kelly McCarty said any deal "will destroy the Republican Party."

Take them seriously, because they're right about 1986. Congress legalized nearly three million people and promised enforcement. The legalization arrived. The enforcement fizzled. Anyone who forgets that deserves the skepticism.

But the lesson of 1986 isn't never legislate. It's never pass the carrot without locking in the stick. That's exactly why this has to be codified. What's done by executive order can be undone by executive order. Democrats just won both chambers of Congress, and the next president can erase everything Trump did with a pen on Inauguration Day unless it's written into law.

And if you think a deal gets signed without scrutiny, remember who's about to be chief of staff. Stephen Miller, as notorious an immigration hawk as exists, takes over a White House where this interview was taped before he was picked. Nothing leaves that building without his eyes on every line.

As for Cumia's warning about Texas, look at Texas. Democrats just swept statewide races there with no amnesty on the table. Talarico won Hidalgo County by 46 points, two years after Trump carried it with 51 percent. A recent Fox News poll found that a majority of Americans say immigration enforcement has crossed the line. Holding a hard line with no plan guaranteed nothing. "No deal" isn't the safe choice. It's just the one that feels safe.

Trump won border counties in 2024 on a promise to close the border and deport the criminals. Voters there didn't ask for chaos. Even Rep. Henry Cuellar, the Laredo Democrat poised to chair the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, says, "The Biden Administration had it wrong." He also says what matters here: "There are Democrats who are willing to work with the administration, with President Trump, but it takes two to have a deal."

Then define the terms. Extended work visas, as Brian Kilmeade suggested on my show last week, for people who've been here without further criminal activity. A visa isn't citizenship. Rep. Maria Salazar's Dignity Act, which would offer legal status to people here continuously since 2020 who pay restitution and back taxes, is the sort of proposal that needs to be read line by line. Details decide everything. I'm not endorsing a bill I haven't read, and neither should you.

Here's what I am endorsing.

Enforcement first, in writing, with funding and consequences attached. Cooperation required of states and local authorities, so a governor can't decide the law is optional. A backlog cleared so cases are decided in months, not years. And a clear line between the worker who broke one law and the criminal who broke many.

Republicans need to stop freaking out that amnesty is what awaits us. Nobody has proposed it, and the one man whose signature matters hasn't said the word.

Keep deporting the worst of the worst. Keep the border slammed shut. And write the reforms that keep America safe into finished law while the man holding the pen is still willing to sign it.

Editor’s Note: We voted for mass deportations, not mass amnesty. Help us continue to fight back against those trying to go against the will of the American people. 

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