Trump is certainly not going to make it easy. He responded to his midterm losses by elevating Stephen Miller, the architect of mass deportations, to White House chief of staff. Yet in an interview with Ross Douthat on 60 Minutes recorded before Miller’s appointment, Trump suggested he was open to an immigration deal with Democrats. He walked those comments back a day later, saying there won’t be amnesty for undocumented immigrants and that his policy hasn’t changed.
On the defensive front, Congress is limited in what it can do to rein in mass deportations. The multi-year funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) received in the last two years, more than $113 billion, cannot be taken away without new legislation and, absent a veto-proof majority, Trump’s signature. That being said, if they can collect a veto-proof majority, Congress should try to limit how that funding is used by passing new legislation. With the money and infrastructure already in place, oversight of ICE and the Border Patrol will be essential to exposing abuses, holding the administration accountable, and slowing them down.