Shhh, don't talk about it...

Two articles caught my eye recently. At the NYT Republicans concede they need to pivot on immigration before midterms. And at Axios White House tells House Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations.

DORAL, FL — White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair privately urged House Republicans on Tuesday to stop emphasizing "mass deportations" and instead focus their messaging on removing violent criminals, according to sources in the closed-door briefing.

Why it matters: Mass deportations were central to the GOP's 2024 campaign message.

• Nearly half — 49% — of Americans say Trump's mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, including 1 in 5 voters who backed the president in 2024, a Politico poll from January found.

State of play: Blair delivered the message during a policy listening session with House Republicans at their annual retreat in Doral, Florida.

• He encouraged members to focus on deporting violent offenders rather than defending the broader concept of mass removals.
• The advice signals a recalibration by the White House — and reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump's immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what this one is about. Texas. Where latino support for Trump is plummeting.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows that President Donald Trump is losing support among Hispanic voters as well as the wider Hispanic community, with 70% disapproving of his performance.

In the 2024 election, 42% of Latinos voted for President Trump, which was 10% more than in the 2020 election. While those Hispanic voters who voted for President Trump in the 2024 election remain optimistic about the President’s performance, with 81% still approving, this number is down from previous polling of 93%.

Lots of young hispanic voters who flocked to Trump in the last election are now deserting him in droves after witnessing a ghastly deportation campaign that is harassing and sometimes killing both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

With John Cornyn and the venal MAGA head and philanderer Ken Paxton engaged in an internecine primary war stoked by the President, the Democratic candidate Talarico actually has a shot at grabbing the first Senatorial seat in Texas in well over twenty years.

So now we aren't going to talk about mass deportations again until after the midterms, we aren't going to make any policy changes either mind you, but maybe with Noem out and an emphasis on "violent offenders" we can pull our usual sleight of hand game on the American citizenry.