Trump Reopened the DACA Amnesty Door but Laura Ingraham Just Slammed It Back Shut In Markwayne Mullin’s Face

Republicans just got hammered in the midterms.

Trump's response was to tell his DHS secretary to go make nice with Democrats on immigration.

Laura Ingraham heard the word DACA and told Trump's new DHS chief exactly what that deal would cost him.

Trump Told Mullin to Cut a Deal with Democrats Anyway

Markwayne Mullin, who took over as Secretary of Homeland Security after Kristi Noem was fired from the post in March 2026, confirmed on Monday, November 9, that Trump personally told him to open immigration talks with Democrats who had reached out, with a meeting expected down the road.

That instruction came days after voters delivered Republicans a brutal midterm beating, and it points directly at the man who gave the order.

Mullin sat down with Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle the next night, Tuesday, November 10, to defend it.

He did not get far.

"So why would any idea be floated to work with Democrats on an issue that is their holy grail as well?" Ingraham asked him.

It is a fair question, and it is Trump's question to answer, not Mullin's.

Mullin was handed this assignment, but he still owns every word he used to defend it.

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Mullin's Legal Status Plan Is Amnesty with Extra Steps

Mullin's pitch was permanent legal status for people brought into the country illegally as children under DACA.

"DACA applies to children that were brought to this country at no fault of their own," he said, drawing a line at citizenship while still calling for "a path for you to be legal."

Call it whatever the administration wants to call it.

A permanent legal status for people who are in the country illegally, granted as part of a negotiation with the party that wants it most, is amnesty with a different label stapled on.

Mullin posted on X the same day that "amnesty will never be on the table," then went on live television the next night and explained why a form of it should be.

When Ingraham pushed him on why DACA was the message Republicans were sending voters two days after an election, Mullin's defense was that some recipients "may not even speak English or never even lived in their country."

That is not an answer to why Republicans are negotiating.

That is an argument for why Democrats will never stop asking.

Every Republican Who Tried This Deal Before Trump Got Burned

Ingraham did not pull her skepticism out of thin air.

Senators James Lankford, Marco Rubio, and John McCain all walked into immigration negotiations with Democrats expecting a workable deal, and every one of those efforts collapsed or handed Democrats a win Republicans never recovered from.

George W. Bush tried the same bipartisan path and got nothing but blowback from his own voters for it.

Mullin himself acknowledged that Trump floated a similar DACA-for-wall trade back in 2016, and Democrats rejected it outright once they realized they could simply wait him out.

That is not a point in his favor.

It means Trump already ran this exact play in 2016, watched Democrats simply run out the clock on it, and is now betting a second offer will somehow land differently with the same party on the other side of the table.

"Problem is you're not going to be in office," Ingraham told Mullin, the plainest possible warning that any legal-status deal struck now is a gift a future Democratic administration can expand the moment Republicans lose the White House.

The One Issue Republicans Cannot Afford to Fumble Twice

No amnesty was the one line that held the coalition together through a midterm wipeout.

Reopening it two days later, through a Secretary who was not even in the job a year ago, is not a sign of strength.

It is a sign that the people running immigration policy still think the base can be managed with the word "never" on a podium while the actual policy drifts the other direction in private.

Mullin can keep insisting amnesty is off the table.

Ingraham already told him, on camera, that the people who are supposed to believe him do not: "They are not with you."

Sources:

• staff, "'Why Did You Float DACA?' Mullin Put On The Spot Over Immigration Deal," The Daily Caller, November 11, 2026.
• staff, "Mullin Opens Door to Permanent Status for DACA Recipients, but Insists 'We're Never Going to Allow Amnesty,'" Conservative Daily News, November 2026.
• staff, "Amnesty Will 'Never Happen' Under Trump's Watch: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin," Fox News, November 9, 2026.
• staff, "Mullin Reveals His Red Line for an Immigration Deal with Dems," The Daily Wire, 2026.