Federal deportation policy is undergoing a “course correction” amid pushback from Latinos with swing votes, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The Republican Party is building “a durable, common-sense governing majority for its foreseeable future,” Johnson told an NBC News interviewer, adding:
We had a little hiccup with some of the Hispanic and Latino voters, no doubt, because some of the immigration enforcement was seen as overzealous… But here’s the good news: We’re in course correction mode right now.
We will have a new Secretary of Homeland Security. Markwayne Mullen will do a great job in that role. I’m sure he will be confirmed by the Senate. He’s a thoughtful guy. It will bring a reflective approach. [We] Having someone like Tom Homan who has 40 years of experience. [in this] field and was decorated by Democratic presidents for his insight and experience. He went to Minneapolis and brought calm to the chaos that reigned there. That’s what you’re going to see.
Mullin, the incoming head of Homeland Security, opposes any immigration amnesty but has been ambivalent about his preferred deportation policy.
The “course correction” plan was also outlined by James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff for legislation and political affairs:
The so-called “course correction” term is ambivalent about whether the federal government should deport only criminal immigrants rather than all illegal immigrants who are being used by companies to drive down the wages of American families.
Many polls show that a clear majority of Americans favor deporting all illegal immigrants, but also that a critical swathe of undecided voters dislike the drama of street arrests. Many non-political voters are also moved by the myriad pro-immigrant sob stories spread by sympathetic media sites.
“We want everyone to leave, James.” saying a social media response to Blair’s tweet from the X account @scalpsandall:
I want the drywall workers who hang around the gas station at 5 in the morning and clog everything up because the cashier can’t understand them to go away. I want the farmer who works for $12 an hour with no benefits because the taxpayer pays for his children’s education, healthcare, and housing. I want them all to disappear, violent or not. I want my country back.
The ambivalent “course correction” policy will rebuild support among Latinos who prioritize pocketbook issues, President Johnson predicted:
I think the Hispanic and Latino voters who came to us did so for several reasons. They were very encouraged by the open border and all the negative side effects that came from it, but they were also worried about the cost of living and the lack of jobs and all those other things that everyone worries about.
…We anticipate extraordinary economic growth this year. In the medium term all boats will rise. Wages and salaries will rise. You have bigger tax refunds and bigger wages, and the average family has $10,000 more in their pocket because of Republican policies. I think these people will see that we did what we said we were going to do. We calm concerns about immigration enforcement. We defend the rule of law, but we do so in a way that honors the dignity of everyone, and they will understand that our party is with them and cares about them. This is the permanent home where they should be fine.
But Trump’s deportations of illegal immigrants are already improving the economy for ordinary Americans, especially for the millions of working-class Latinos who are seeing wage increases in a wide variety of jobs.
Federal and market data show that wages have risen and housing costs have fallen. Inflation is going down, transportation costs are going down, crime is going down, and corporations are spending big to help Americans be more productive. The resulting prosperity will likely help increase birth rates as husbands reap greater benefits. wages and the wives earn more trust in the future.
One in five Texas businesses has reduced their reliance on “workers from a different country,” according to a survey conducted Feb. 10-18 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. That 20 percent is up from just 2 percent in February 2024. Similarly, only 13 percent of Texas businesses have increased their reliance on migrant workers in the past year, compared to 41 percent in February 2024.
The reduced use of immigrants is forcing the wages of construction workers, including Latin Americans, to increase. “The construction industry is undergoing its most dramatic pay transformation in decades,” said a December 2025 report from The Birmingham Group:
The current labor shortage is driving unprecedented wage increases across all commercial projects. Construction companies report difficulties filling critical positions, with some markets experiencing job vacancy-to-candidate ratios greater than 3:1. This imbalance has created a seller’s market for skilled workers, allowing for significant wage negotiations and competitive pay packages.
Trump and his deputies are zigzagging toward a new national strategy of economic growth through productivity and automation, instead of former President Joe Biden’s crude and lethal extraction-immigration policy.
For Trump, the nation’s main rival is non-immigrant China, which depends on intelligent and diligent citizens to expand its high-tech factories and laboratories. “We’re going to need robots… to run our economy because we don’t have enough people,” Trump told Breitbart News, adding:
We have to be efficient… we will probably add more [the existing workforce] through robotically, it will be robotically… It’s going to be big. Then someone will have to make the robots. The whole thing feeds off… let’s speed things up. We need efficiency.
