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Washington DC: White House and top House Republican officials have told party members to avoid discussing “mass deportations” ahead of the midterm elections, backing away from public discussion of a central campaign pledge of President Donald Trump.

The advice hit as Republican prospects appear dim ahead of the November voting.

While Republican members of Congress gathered in Doral, Florida, for a retreat Tuesday, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair and Republican congresswoman Lisa McClain, the chair of the House Republican Conference, instructed them to eschew talking about sweeping deportations of undocumented people and instead focus only on deportations of violent criminals, according to three people with knowledge of the remarks who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the closed-door event.

Trump ran on a pledge of enacting “mass deportations,” vowing to launch “the largest deportation in the history of our country.” At one point on the campaign trail, he told Time magazine he planned to deport 15 million to 20 million undocumented immigrants – a figure larger than the actual number of immigrants in the country illegally, according to most experts.

The president himself has since tiptoed away from the plan, at times calling for protections for undocumented hospitality and agriculture workers, and suggesting that the administration first focus on deporting people who have committed violent crimes.

Blair told the crowd they should now focus on highlighting the administration’s removal of criminals, according to two of the people present, and explained that there is greater public support for doing so than for “mass deportations”.

For much of last year, the administration leaned hard into the idea that anyone in the country illegally was a legitimate target for deportation. The White House last year pressured the Department of Homeland Security to increase its deportation numbers, while DHS, under Secretary Kristi Noem, embarked on high-profile round-ups of migrants, many of whom had no criminal background. By midsummer last year, more than half of those removed from the country had no criminal conviction, according to a Washington Post analysis of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

Last week, Trump fired Noem, tapping Republican senator Markwayne Mullin for the role as the White House seeks to minimise DHS-related controversy ahead of the midterms.