A team of Donald Trump allies has formed a lobbying group to try to convince the administration to carry on with its hardline mass deportation policies.
The MAGA loyalists formed the “Mass Deportation Coalition” after becoming irate at suggestions that the White House is trying to get Republicans to tone down their messaging around Trump’s top 2024 pledge to carry out the “largest mass deportation program” in U.S. history, Politico reported. Instead, GOP lawmakers are being urged to say the focus is just on hardened criminals.
White House deputy chief of staff James Blair reiterated that guidance earlier this week, reportedly telling House Republicans to soften their messaging about removing undocumented migrants from the country. The backtracking comes after Trump and ICE’s hardline tactics received intense condemnation following the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
The Mass Deportation Coalition—whose members include Mark Morgan, the former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under Trump, former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, and conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025—still believes that efforts to deport every undocumented person in the country are a vote-winner.
The group hopes a poll could convince the White House that its mass deportation efforts will help the GOP’s gloomy outlook in the 2026 midterm elections.
The survey, conducted by the top Trump polling group McLaughlin & Associates, found that 66 percent of likely midterm voters support deporting migrants who enter the country illegally. A majority (58 percent) also said they would support plans to deport all undocumented migrants, not just violent criminals.
“Overwhelmingly, Trump voters expect this from the administration. They don’t just support it—they expect it,” Chris Chmielenski, president of the conservative Immigration Accountability Project, told Politico. “This is a good way to re-energize the base as we move into the midterms, the same way that Trump was able to do so in the lead-up to the 2024 general election.”
However, multiple other surveys show the public has largely been against the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies. A Politico poll in January found that 49 percent say Trump’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, including one in five voters who supported the Republican in 2024.
A February Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll also revealed that 58 percent of U.S. adults believe the president has gone “too far” with his plans to deport undocumented immigrants, up from 50 percent last October.
There have been signs that the administration is aware its hardline deportation plans are unpopular with the public. This includes removing Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem and top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino from immigration operations in Minneapolis and replacing them with White House border czar Tom Homan.
Trump unceremoniously fired Noem as Homeland Security secretary last week as the constant scandals surrounding her personal and professional life became too much for the president.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson denied that the administration wants to change its deportation approach.
“President Trump’s highest priority has always been the deportation of illegal alien criminals who endanger American communities,” she told Politico.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.
