Conflict brews within House GOP conference between moderates and mass deportation hardliners

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the promise that he will implement nationwide mass deportations after the Biden-Harris administration allowed at least 10 million migrants to illegally enter the country over the last four years. While Trump has many political allies on the hill, others within the Republican conference hold a more moderate view on the immigration issue, which may stir conflict in the coming weeks.

Speaker Mike Johnson has earned the wholehearted endorsement of the president-elect, despite being at the center of much of the GOP's infighting. While he has aligned himself with Trump's MAGA mandate, he wavered on the key issue of immigration during an interview with CNN on Sunday.

'Our starting place should be for any individuals who came here illegally or were released into the United States illegally, illegitimately, by the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas regime.'

Johnson first and foremost reaffirmed that his position largely aligns with Trump's, insisting that effective immigration policy was a "mandate" from the American people.

"This is what the American people have demanded and what they deserve," Johnson told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Sunday. "They want a secure country. They want a secure border. And we will deliver upon that. That's what the mandate of the election was all about."

Despite this, Johnson indicated that his deportation policy would not include all illegal immigrants at first but rather prioritize the deportation of criminals.

"I think what the president is talking about is beginning with the dangerous persons that we know are here," Johnson said. "There are criminals, known criminals. There are known terrorists in the country. There are some who have been apprehended for committing violent crimes after they've come across the border illegally. So you start with that number. You've got, by some counts, as many as 3 or 4 million people that fit in that category. Begin there and then see how it transpires."

Johnson's comments earned a bit of pushback from political allies and immigration hardliners like Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who says we should "keep our foot on the gas" when it comes to deportations.

"We've made some progress in unity," Roy said on Glenn Beck's Monday show. "But, I will say, I was a little concerned about what I heard yesterday, and the speaker kind of walked it back a little bit. But focusing on deportation, I think we need to just keep our foot on the gas."

"I want to be very clear," Roy continued. "Our starting place should be for any individuals who came here illegally or were released into the United States illegally, illegitimately, by the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas regime. They need to be removed."

While Republicans like Johnson and Roy have smaller differences to parse in the upcoming Congress, other GOP representatives are going against the grain when it comes to the MAGA mandate.

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, a fellow Texan who represents a border county, has signaled opposition to the blanket deportations Trump is advocating for.

"If the message is, 'We're here to deport your abuelita,' that's not going to work well," Gonzales said, using the Spanish word for "grandma," in a Sunday interview with ABC News. "It has to be one of holding these hardened criminals accountable."

“You know, if we’re going after the guy that’s picking tomatoes or the nurse at the local hospital and we’re not going after the convicted criminal, then our government has failed us,” Gonzales said.

Despite the top-down mandate from Trump, the Republican conference could become fractured on yet another hot-button issue.

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