Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt decided to wander onto CNN and pick a fight with President Trump’s immigration policy, and the result was exactly what you would expect when a Republican starts auditioning for applause from Dana Bash. While discussing Operation Metro Surge, the Trump Administration’s deployment of more than 2,000 federal immigration agents to the Twin Cities region, Stitt trashed the very enforcement voters overwhelmingly demanded, even as Minneapolis continues to spiral into unrest.
The latest flashpoint came Saturday when 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed after allegedly attempting to draw a weapon on federal immigration agents. That detail somehow keeps getting lost in the sympathetic cable news coverage, but Stitt used the moment to question whether Americans actually wanted mass deportations. According to him, Trump voters only wanted the border closed and violent criminals removed. Everything else, he suggested, is some kind of overreach.
🚨 OKLAHOMA ALERT: GOVERNOR KEVIN STITT HAS LOST TOUCH WITH AMERICA — AND HIS OWN STATE IS PROOF!
Hey Governor @GovStitt – you went on TV today pretending Americans DON'T want to deport EVERY SINGLE illegal non-citizen?
WRONG! YES, we DO want them ALL gone – violent… pic.twitter.com/NumkzgwncI
— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) January 25, 2026
This is where the argument starts to fall apart. President Trump did close the border and promised to remove violent criminals, but anyone paying attention knew enforcement would not stop there. Immigration law is not a buffet where states pick what they like and ignore the rest. Stitt governs a state that President Trump carried by more than 30 points in 2024, yet he claimed Americans are now asking, “what is the end game?” That question sounds suspiciously like Washington-speak for slowing everything down until nothing happens.
Stitt leaned hard on federalism and states’ rights, saying nobody likes “feds coming into their state.” That line might play well on a Sunday talk show, but it rings hollow when the same states demand federal help the moment chaos breaks out. You cannot complain about federal agents enforcing the law while also admitting the situation is “complicated” and out of control.
When Bash pressed him on whether President Trump should pull agents out of Minneapolis, Stitt dodged. He called President Trump a dealmaker getting “bad advice,” which is a polite way of saying he thinks the White House should back off. He repeated the idea that deporting every non-U.S. citizen is not what Americans want, a claim he asserted without evidence.
Stitt then pivoted to his preferred solution, giving states more authority to issue work permits to non-citizens. He even bragged about creating the Oklahoma State Work Permits and Visas Task Force in 2024, framing it as a way to bolster the workforce and let migrants contribute “without fear.” That may sound compassionate, but it effectively invites states to rewrite immigration law on their own terms.
He has even teamed up with Colorado Governor Jared Polis on this idea, which should set off alarms for anyone who has watched how Colorado handles enforcement. Immigration policy cannot be a patchwork of executive orders and task forces. President Trump was elected to enforce the law, not to outsource it to governors experimenting with work permits while federal agents are dodging riots in the streets.
Stitt may call himself a Republican, but on immigration, he sounds a lot like someone hoping the pressure just goes away. It will not.