U.S. Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) says President Trump’s immigration crackdown is hurting Republicans in a major way with the midterm elections less than a month away.
In a rancorous online dialogue with former Justice Department official Jeff Clark, who defended the administration, Bacon said Trump’s policy lacked the “common sense and decency” Americans expect from their government — an assertion Clark interpreted as laissez-faire permissiveness.
“Representative Bacon’s view is that our immigration laws can be violated with impunity,” Clark wrote.
Bacon responded: “You’ve taken an immigration policy that favored the GOP by 2:1 in 2024 to now we are underwater 1:2.”
“Americans want a secure border; violent criminals and the lazy booted; but then some common sense and decency,” Bacon added. “You fail the latter. You are basically inviting the crazy left back.”
You’ve taken an immigration policy that favored the GOP by 2:1 in 2024 to now we are underwater by 2:1. Americans want a secure border; violent, criminals and the lazy booted; but then some common sense and decency. You fail the latter. You are basically inviting the crazy left back in reaction.
— Rep. Don Bacon
(@RepDonBacon) October 5, 2026
Clark resisted Bacon’s assertion that Republicans were struggling, but allowed that — “if it were true” — a lack of team unity on the GOP side was making Republicans vulnerable to “the Left and its media.”
Clark wrote: “If it were true, it’s because there is a lack of unity on our side in vehemently resisting the Left and its media.”
Representative Bacon’s view is that our immigration laws can be violated with impunity.
He’s in the wrong party.
— Jeff Clark (@JeffClarkUS) October 5, 2026
Bacon sought to keep the conversation focused on the immigration issue, not the alleged Republican dissension, writing: “Hey Silly, we’re deporting people who are legally here, working and paying taxes.”
@Thor96607567 @JeffClarkUS Hey Silly, we’re deporting people who are legally here, working and paying taxes.
— Rep. Don Bacon
“Common sense says it’s foolish to deport someone who has been here legally for over a decade, is working, has a family and owns a home,” Bacon wrote. “Human decency and Gospel values will succeed. Woke right will lose in the end.”
The Nebraska congressman recently described the kind of deportation case he objects to in a Washington Post op-ed, recounting the story of a young Omaha woman called Mariana who returned to Mexico after the Department of Homeland Security declined to grant her another stay of removal.
Though she graduated from Omaha Central High School, earned an aviation degree and obtained a private pilot’s license, Mariana remained under a removal order after she missed a hearing when she was a minor. “She had no criminal record,” Bacon wrote. “No reasonable person looking at her case would have called her a threat to anyone.”
Expanding the deportation targets beyond people with criminal records has been divisive, even in rural communities where Trump won handily. An Associated Press-KFF survey found rural voters divided over whether Trump’s immigration policies had helped or harmed their communities, with approximately three in ten reporting no effect.
About 70 percent of rural voters described legal immigrants as important to their local economies. About 70 percent also considered temporary and seasonal agricultural workers important. Forty percent said Trump had gone too far in restricting legal immigration or deporting people without legal status.
Bacon isn’t alone among Republicans in objecting to the extent — and lamenting the impact — of the Trump administration’s immigration strategy. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) recently posted a campaign video in which she said: “Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.”
A Message to President Trump on Immigration | María Elvira Salazar https://t.co/memcf4jags
— María Elvira Salazar
(@MaElviraSalazar) September 17, 2026