Steve Bannon Warns Republicans Are Preparing Lame-Duck Amnesty

Steve Bannon, the host of War Room and a former White House chief strategist under Donald Trump, said Wednesday that Republicans are preparing a sweeping immigration package that would grant amnesty to "20 or 30 or 40 million people." He said it would move through the lame-duck session alongside a huge spending bill before Democrats take over the House in January.

The warning was aimed at his own party. It came the morning after Tuesday's midterms, in which Republicans lost the House. Bannon did not name a bill, a sponsor or any lawmaker involved. His population figure runs well above published estimates.

Steve Bannon Says the Lame-Duck Session 'Is Going to Be the Worst'

Bannon brought up the package early in the show and returned to it after the first break.

"So this lame duck is going to be the worst. I mean, they're going to jam," he said. "They've already worked on a massive amnesty bill."

This is going to be pushed. The Republicans are already working on it. They're going to take the debt ceiling off. They're going to have a omnibus, the mother of all omnibuses."

"The Republicans are already working on it. They're going to take the debt ceiling off." — Steve Bannon

He said the spending bill would mean "not a two trillion, but a $3 trillion deficit, which drives inflation."

Jason Miller, a longtime Trump adviser who co-hosted the episode, predicted that some Republicans would urge the party to "just come together with some kind of immigration reform plan as a way to help bring back the Latino American coalition." He called that "B.S."

What the Record Shows on Amnesty, H-1B Visas and the Deficit

Bannon did not name a bill, but one legal-status proposal in Congress is the Dignity Act, a bipartisan bill from Representative María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican. It would give long-term undocumented residents with clean records legal status, but not citizenship, if they pass background checks and pay restitution. In January, Salazar's office listed 35 cosponsors and quoted her: "It is not citizenship. It is not amnesty. It is dignity." Bannon described a broader package that includes H-1B visas; the Dignity Act is a legal-status bill, not that package.

Bannon's numbers are far larger than the estimates. The Pew Research Center estimated a record 14 million unauthorized immigrants in 2023. The low end of Bannon's range is well above that figure, and the high end is almost three times it.

Why Steve Bannon Is Aiming at Republicans

On Wednesday Bannon blamed the Iran war and rising prices for the losses.

Trump's approval on the economy stands at 29.7 percent, with 67.5 percent disapproving, according to PolitiKool's polling average. His overall approval is 38.3 percent in PolitiKool's polling average.

What Happens Next

Lawmakers come back for the lame-duck session with a narrow window before the new Congress is sworn in. Bannon and Miller urged Republicans to use that time to confirm Trump's nominees and pass defense funding, and Bannon urged them to block the amnesty and the omnibus. Miller dismissed talk of an immigration-reform deal as "B.S."

Whether any amnesty package exists outside Bannon's description is not yet known. Neither he nor Miller named a Republican working on one.