White House urges Republicans to back away from 'mass deportation' message

The White House urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to distance themselves from the message of mass deportations. As reported by Axios, the instruction came from James Blair, deputy chief of staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

Currently, both the House Republican leadership and its members are on a retreat in Doral, Florida. This is a tradition in which members meet privately for three days to discuss strategy and public policy outside of Washington, D.C.

Last Monday, members received a visit from Donald Trump, who spoke to them about the war with Iran, their legislative triumphs so far, and the need to pass the SAVE Act, which is currently awaiting debate and a vote in the Senate.

 Axios spoke with sources familiar with the private conversations in Doral. According to their report, Blair insisted that House Republicans de-emphasize "mass deportations" to instead "focus their message on removing violent criminals."

In addition, the official said lawmakers were starting to look to their states for people benefiting from President Trump's policies, particularly the Big Beautiful Bill, also called the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.

"We're in a course-correction mode right now"

In recent months, the perception of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) work, particularly regarding deportations, has become increasingly negative. This situation led to Kristi Noem's departure, effective in early April. She will be replaced by Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin.

Mike Johnson, speaker of the House of Representatives, spoke from Doral with C-SPAN and was optimistic about Mullin's arrival in the Cabinet.

"We had a little hiccup with some Latino and Hispanic voters for certain, because some of the immigration enforcement was viewed to be overzealous. Everybody can describe it differently, but here's the good news: we're in a course-correction mode right now. We're gonna have a new DHS secretary," Johnson said.

"He's a thoughtful guy. He'll bring a thoughtful approach. You have somebody like Tom Homan who has forty years experience in the field and was decorated by former democrat presidents for his acumen and expertise, and he went into Minneapolis and brought calm to the chaos there," he added.