Speaker Mike Johnson Sketches ‘Course Correction’ in DHS Deportation Policy
According to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, federal deportation policy is undergoing a “course correction” in the face of reluctance among Latinos who vote undecidedly.
The GOP is building “a sustainable, common-sense majority to govern for the foreseeable future,” Johnson told an NBC News interviewer, adding:
We had a little hiccup with some Hispanic and Latino voters, of course, because some immigration enforcement officers were seen as overzealous… But here’s the good news, we’re in course-correction mode right now.
We’re going to have a new Secretary of Homeland Security. Markwayne Mullen is going to do a great job in this role. I am sure he will be confirmed by the Senate. He’s a caring guy. He will bring a thoughtful approach. [We] having someone like Tom Homan who has 40 years of experience [in this] field and has been decorated by Democratic presidents for his insight and expertise. He went to Minneapolis and calmed the chaos there. This is what you are going to see.
Mullin, the new head of Homeland Security, opposes any immigration amnesties but is 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 policy affairs:
The claimed term “course correction” is ambivalent about whether the federal government should deport only criminal migrants instead of all illegal migrants who are used by businesses to drive down wages for American families.
Numerous polls show that a clear majority of Americans favor deporting all illegal immigrants — but also that a critical portion of undecided voters dislike the drama of street arrests. Many non-political voters are also moved by the myriad pro-migrant sob stories spread by sympathetic media sites.
"We want them all gone, James," said a social media response to Blair’s tweet from the X account @scalpsandall:
I want the plasterers who hang around the gas station at 5 a.m. and clog everything because the cashier doesn’t understand, to disappear. I want a farm worker who works for $12 an hour and no benefits because the taxpayer spends on his children’s education, health care and housing. I want them all to disappear, violent or not. I want my country back.
The ambivalent “course correction” policy will restore support among Latinos who prioritize pocketbook issues, President Johnson predicted:
I think the Hispanic and Latino voters who came to us came for several reasons. They were very excited about the opening of the border and all the negative side effects that came with it, but they were also worried about the cost of living, the lack of jobs and all those other things that everyone worries about.
…We expect extraordinary economic growth for this year. In the medium term, all boats will rise. Wages and salaries will increase. You have bigger tax refunds and higher wages, and the average family has $10,000 more in their pocket thanks to Republican policies. I think these people will see that we did what we said we would do. We are alleviating concerns about immigration control. We stand for the rule of law, but we do it in a way that honors everyone’s dignity, and they will understand that our party stands with them and cares about them. This is the permanent home where they should feel good.
But Trump’s deportations of all illegal immigrants are already improving the economy for ordinary Americans — especially for the millions of working-class Latinos who are seeing their wages rise in a wide variety of jobs.
Federal and market data show wages are rising and housing costs are falling. Inflation is falling, transportation costs are falling, crime is decreasing, and businesses are spending heavily to help Americans become more productive. The resulting prosperity will likely help increase birth rates as husbands earn more money. wages and wives earn more trust in the future.
One in five Texas businesses have reduced their reliance on “workers from another country,” according to a survey conducted Feb. 10-18 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. This 20 percent is up from just 2 percent in February 2024. Likewise, only 13 percent of Texas businesses have increased their reliance on migrant workers over the past year, compared to 41 percent in February 2024.
Reduced reliance on migrants is driving up wages for construction workers, including Latin Americans. “The construction industry is experiencing its most dramatic pay transformation in decades,” says a December 2025 report from the Birmingham Group:
The current labor shortage is leading to unprecedented wage increases in commercial projects. Construction companies are reporting difficulty filling critical positions, with some markets experiencing job opening to candidate ratios exceeding 3:1. This imbalance has created a seller’s market for skilled workers, allowing for significant salary negotiations and competitive compensation.
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 deadly policy of extraction migration.
For Trump, the nation’s main rival is migration-free China, which relies on smart, 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 need to be efficient… we will probably add [the existing workforce] through robotically – it’s going to be robotically… It’s going to be big. Then someone will have to make the robots. The whole thing feeds on itself… we’re going to rationalize things. We need efficiency.
