Trump says that families with mixed immigration statuses may be deported

President-elect Donald Trump stated in an interview that aired on Sunday that his administration may deport families with mixed immigration status.

In his extensive interview with NBC's Kristen Welker, which aired on Sunday, Trump made his most explicit remarks to date on the topic. He reiterated his campaign promise to end birthright citizenship and begin mass deportations of illegal immigrants, but he also indicated that he would be open to working with Democrats to develop a plan to protect thousands of immigrants who were brought to the US as children.

“We have to do something about the Dreamers, because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people now. They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we’re going to do something about that,” Trump said in his “Meet the Press” interview, which was taped Friday.

“I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan — but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the Dreamers,” he added.

Trump stated that his administration's mass deportation initiatives will target those with criminal records, but he did not identify the "other people outside of criminals" that would be targeted. "I think you have to do it," he stated in response to a question about whether he intends to deport everyone who has entered the nation illegally.

“It’s a very tough thing to do,” he said, adding, “you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally.”

Asked about families with mixed immigration status — where parents are in the country illegally but their children are not — Trump said, “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together, and you have to send them all back.”

Trump also reaffirmed his campaign pledge to abolish the 14th Amendment's protection of birthright citizenship and hinted that he could try to do it by executive action.

“We’re gonna have to get it changed, or maybe I would go back to the people, but we have to end it. We’re the only country that has it,” he said, echoing a false statement he’s made in the past. “If we can, through executive action. I was going to do it through executive action, but then we had to fix Covid first, to be honest with you.”