Congress
Breaking down Donald Trump’s deportation agenda
A version of this initially appeared in The Recast, Blue Light News’s race and politics newsletter.
Carlos Trujillo may not be a household name, but he was instrumental in helping President-elect Donald Trump hone his message and win a historic number of Latino voters last week.
Trujillo, who’s been a senior adviser to Trump since his 2016 presidential run and served in his first administration, believes the Republican’s decisive victory ushered in a mandate to implement far-reaching immigration reforms, including mass deportations.
The son of immigrants who defected from Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba, Trujillo applauds Trump’s recent decision to name immigration hard-liners Stephen Miller and Tom Homan as deputy chief of staff for policy and border czar, respectively. And he believes they’ll bring back two of Trump’s previous migration-deterrent policies: the so-called “safe third country” agreements and the “Remain in Mexico” program.
“Those hires are excellent ones and are going to help carry out the vision more than 74 million Americans — including Hispanics — voted for,” Trujillo told Blue Light News.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The president-elect has selected Stephen Miller and Tom Homan to help implement his mass deportation plans. Can you explain how that’s going to be carried out, especially since the president-elect is suggesting there may be no price tag for the scale of it?
So obviously, the price tag, I think it’s less expensive to deport people who are in this country illegally — committing crimes — than it is to keep them.
I worked with Stephen in the first Trump administration. Tom Homan has a spectacular reputation. And both are people who were very, very effective in curbing illegal migration.
Stephen was essential in negotiating the “safe third country” agreements, the “Remain in Mexico” policy — these were all issues that President Trump openly campaigned on, unlike his Democratic opponent who campaigned for sanctuary cities before flipping to saying she’s going to be really tough on the border.
Are you also angling for a position in the upcoming administration?
No, I’m helping Trump and the team through the transition process. But I’m not committed to any position or even entering the administration. I’m happy in the private sector.
Democrats hammered the first Trump administration on the imagery of the government breaking up families and putting kids in cages, or rounding up people who haven’t committed violent crimes.
Are you concerned Trump’s mass deportations plan is going to renew criticisms of family separation all over again?
So just to clarify, the kids in cages started under the Obama administration. President Trump has been very clear in that the first step is to remove criminals.
Let’s start with the 13,000 murderers; I think that’s a pretty good number of people we want to get out. There are over 600,000 people who have [had contact with] law enforcement or have criminal records in this country. I think, obviously, the mass deportations should focus on those who are the most dangerous and most violent and pose the most risk to our country.
Will this 600,000 be enough? My assumption is some will be looking for figures much higher than that. How do you balance a mass deportation plan with those who are stressing a humane approach to this?
I’m not sure of the narrative that you’re painting, that all these people are concerned. Were they concerned for the last four years when millions of people entered this country and showed up in cities that are completely overrun?
There are entire hotels dedicated to migrant staffing across this country. There are veterans who are being displaced from their houses. I’m not sure the narrative of “we’re going to separate children” is really an accurate narrative.
Is Trump’s agenda going to include finishing the border wall too?
Finishing the wall is very important, but I also think it’s important to focus on all the great policies that the Trump administration advanced in the first term, including the “safe third country agreements,” “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42 expulsions. Those are all important things I’m sure will be implemented in some shape or form [again] to deal with the migratory crisis.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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