On Sunday, President Donald Trump indicated that he is open to negotiating an immigration deal with the incoming Democratic Congress. However, despite softening post-election rhetoric, the Trump administration appears to be sending mixed signals on immigration, clouding the outlook for any potential bipartisan agreement.
The stakes of the nation’s highly contentious immigration debate remain high for homebuilders. After a surge in job site raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this summer and fall, many homebuilders say their workers, including those in the country legally, were swept up in enforcement actions.
Whether a bipartisan immigration deal materializes remains an open and pressing question for the numerous builders facing ongoing job site disruptions.
Speaking to CBS News’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, President Trump suggested his administration’s immigration policies “might be too tough” and may have contributed to last week’s election outcome.
“When you go into a hotel…and you have a woman that’s worked there as a maid, as a cleaner, as a this, as a that, as a waitress – a lot of good things, great jobs – and all of a sudden, they’re being taken out of the country. It’s tough. It’s a tough thing,” Trump said.
Trump added that it may be “doable” to reach an agreement allowing undocumented workers who have lived in the U.S. for many years, construction workers among them, to legally remain in the country.
“Get the killers out. Get the rapists out. Get all the rough ones out. Get the drug dealers out, but let the people that are here, and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them,” Trump suggested.
The administration’s mixed messaging
It’s unclear whether Trump’s softer rhetoric will translate into a bipartisan immigration deal. However, his administration’s decision to promote Stephen Miller, a longtime immigration hardliner, to White House Chief of Staff suggests an agreement may be less likely than Trump implied in his CBS News interview.
And in a post on Sunday, the Official White House Rapid Response account, in a post on X, denied that Trump will push for an amnesty deal with Democrats.
However, Trump has at times shown a willingness to soften his stance on immigration, at least briefly. In June 2025, the Trump administration momentarily directed ICE to pause job site raids in sectors like agriculture, hospitality and restaurants after facing blowback from business leaders worried about staffing shortages.
Within days, however, the administration reversed course. It later set a target of 3,000 ICE arrests per day, leading to a record number of immigration arrests in recent months.
Trump has also helped kill a bipartisan deal before. In early 2024, ahead of the presidential election, he urged Republicans to vote against a Senate border package introduced by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) that would have tightened asylum requirements, ended releases of migrants into U.S. communities while they await hearings, and let the president close the border when asylum claims surged. The bill ultimately failed.
Some homebuilding organizations, like the National Association of Home Builders, now have their eyes on a different bipartisan measure, the Dignity Act, which would allow certain undocumented workers to remain in the U.S. without citizenship. Trump’s words signaled openness to such a proposal, but the administration’s actions since the election suggest otherwise.
Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, laid out in a post-midterms election post on X that the administration may be open to changing its approach to immigration, with less room for negotiation.
“Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement – by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you,” Vance wrote.
For homebuilders, immigration policy and its impact on the construction labor pool remains among the biggest policy questions heading into 2027. However, history suggests that a bipartisan deal may be a heavy lift, as Washington hasn’t passed comprehensive immigration reform since 1986, under President Reagan.
Whether Washington breaks its four-decade drought on immigration reform, and whether enforcement eases on job sites, remains a key policy wild card to watch in 2027.
