Mike Rounds

South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds is suggesting that the administration’s immigration policy target only those here illegally who have broken laws other than immigration laws.

Rounds, who is running for reelection this year, implied that mass deportation is not “fair.”

“Most Americans are saying we are a nation of laws, but with as many people here illegally as we’ve got, let’s make darn sure that our focus is on getting those individuals that have violated our laws with regard to other things other than being here illegally,” the senator said, according to the Hill.

Rounds added that he thinks Trump should lay off illegal migrants who “are here and that have a court determination that [says] they can be here.”

He insisted that the administration should “not go after them” and that ICE should “refocus on those individuals that are actually causing harm within society today.”

“Most Americans will tell you that just in terms of their sense of fairness, they would prefer to go after individuals who have been violating our laws,” he concluded.

Rounds has long been a supporter of de facto amnesty for millions of illegals and has also advocated for increasing immigration.

In 2019, for instance, Rounds pushed a bill to give Chinese migrants a leg up on entering the country by clearing the way for them to more easily gain EB-5 green card status.

His bill offered “parole” to Chinese migrants waiting for green cards and gave a citizenship shortcut to the foreigners who lend money to the U.S. real estate industry in exchange for green cards via the EB-5 program.

That same year, Rounds objected to a green card bill sponsored by Utah Sen. Mike Lee because Lee’s bill might have interfered with the ability of South Dakota dairy farmers to hand out green cards to potential foreign dairy industry workers, most of who were illegals from Mexico.

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, also quoted in the Hill, is in opposition to Trump’s immigration policies. Cornyn, who lost his primary to be reelected to the upper chamber, has become a stark critic of the president’s immigration policies.

“Once you start deporting people who have otherwise been here without incident for 15, 20 years, that’s a gray zone that I think where you find a lot of division of opinion,” Cornyn said, according to the Hill.

He added that he “always thought that this idea of mass deportations sent the wrong message,” despite the fact that Trump’s mass deportation pledge formed one of the main pillars of his election to his second term in the White House.

Outgoing North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis also bashed Trump over his immigration policy, adding, “I would rather have 100 illegally present people go free than have that innocent person caught.”

Of Trump’s mass deportation goals, Tillis added, “Aside from it being politically dumb, it’s immoral, in my opinion.”