Gingrich Warns Against Deporting Dreamers, Families as Trump Plans Immigration Crackdown

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has warned against mass deportations of Dreamers, mothers, and children, calling a faction of his own Republican Party “rabid” over immigration. Gingrich, a prominent GOP figure and former presidential hopeful, made the remarks ahead of Donald Trump‘s potential return to the White House, where the former president has vowed to implement aggressive immigration policies.

“I’d be very surprised if you see any significant effort to change the game for people who are here legally,” Gingrich said in an interview with The Guardian. “I just think there’s a very small faction of the party that’s rabid about this.” Gingrich cautioned that public support for mass deportations would “collapse” if stories emerged of mothers, babies, or children being deported.

Trump, who won the 2024 election partly on promises of mass deportations, has suggested his administration could target not only undocumented immigrants but also documented individuals. “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” Trump said in a recent statement. His administration has appointed hardline immigration officials, signaling a tough stance on enforcement.

At the center of the debate are millions of Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Trump has vowed to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects Dreamers from deportation. Gingrich, however, expressed support for finding a pathway to legal status for Dreamers. “It’s nonsense to say somebody who came here when they were two, only speaks English, graduated as a high school valedictorian and is currently a nurse or a doctor should be deported,” he said.

Gingrich, 81, served as a Georgia representative from 1979 to 1999 and was House speaker for the final four years of his tenure. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and remains a close ally of Trump, having advised him during the 2020 election challenges. Gingrich’s comments come as he promotes a PBS documentary, made with his wife, about immigrants who have contributed significantly to U.S. public life.

“We are a nation of law despite some of the things that have been said [by Trump and his allies],” Gingrich said. “And I think that if you have legal standing in the American system, it’s very difficult to deport you. On the other hand, if you have no legal standing, it’s pretty easy to deport you, right? And I’m for doing the easy first.”

Gingrich has proposed a seven-step immigration plan, which he hopes Trump will consider. He also invoked Abraham Lincoln, warning that public sentiment is crucial for any policy’s success. “Lincoln once said that with popular sentiment, anything is possible; without popular sentiment, nothing is possible,” Gingrich noted. “Well, you get very many human stories about mothers or babies or children being deported, then support for the deportation program will collapse.”