President Donald Trump used his first 60 Minutes interview in five years to defend his administration’s aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, declaring that “they haven’t gone far enough.” The interview, which aired Sunday on CBS News, marked Trump’s first sit-down with the network since suing and later settling with CBS parent company Paramount over a 2024 segment involving then–Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
“I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump told 60 Minutes anchor Norah O’Donnell. He added that he was “OK with the tactics being used by ICE” because “you have to get the people out.”
Watch the exchange here:
O’Donnell pressed Trump on controversial footage showing ICE agents using tear gas in a Chicago neighborhood, smashing car windows, and tackling suspects in front of their children. Trump dismissed the criticism and defended the operation, arguing that most deportees are violent criminals and dangerous offenders.
“You have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people thrown out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals,” Trump said. “We’re doing that. That’s what we’re doing.”
When asked whether his administration intends to deport non-violent individuals such as “landscapers, nannies, and construction workers,” Trump said the guiding principle remains the same: those who enter illegally will be deported, but with an opportunity to re-enter through legal channels.
“We have to start off with a policy, and the policy has to be that ‘you came into the country illegally, you’re going to go out,” Trump said. “However, you’ve also seen, ‘You’re going to go out. We’re going to work with you, and you’re going to come back into our country legally.’”
Since returning to office, Trump has expanded ICE operations nationwide, deploying masked federal agents into “sanctuary cities” such as Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. Local officials have sharply criticized the move. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have both condemned the tactics, while San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie called them counterproductive.
“In cities across the country, masked immigration officials are deployed to use aggressive enforcement tactics that instill fear, so people don’t feel safe going about their daily lives,” Lurie said in a nine-minute video statement.
The wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview also touched on topics such as the ongoing government shutdown, relations with China and Venezuela, and Trump’s thoughts on the 2028 presidential race.
UPDATE:
60 Minutes released more footage from the interview in which President Trump was asked directly about if he was winning the immigration battle.
Watch here:
Full transcript of the video:
NORAH O’DONNELL: When will you declare mission accomplished on immigration?PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, it takes a long time, because, you know, probably I say 25 million people were let into our country. A lotta people say it was 10 million people. But whether it was ten or– I believe I’m much closer to the right number. Of the 25, many of them should not be here. Many of them.But we’re– we’re cleaning up our cities. You know, I campaigned on crime, but I’ve done a much better job on crime than I thought. You know, the crime numbers are way down, even though we have a lot more people in our country that really shouldn’t be here. And many of them are stone-cold hard criminals.
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