Republican Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell proposed a 6-month pause to deportations, allowing time for illegal immigrants to obtain conditional work visas.

Lindell, founder and CEO of MyPillow, revealed his proposal to the Washington Examiner in an interview. The so called “MyPillow Guy” announced in December 2025 that he would run for Minnesota Governor, and recently received endorsement from President Donald Trump.

The video player is currently playing an ad.“Six months, all the illegal immigrants would have to go get what’s going to be called a conditional work visa,” he said. “I’m a person of second chances, if the only thing they ever did was cross the border and didn’t report back in because they were afraid of being re-deported.”

“I met with the illegals down in San Diego,” Lindell told the Washington Examiner. “I met with a lot of them and I heard their stories.”

Under the proposal, illegal immigrants would have the opportunity to apply for conditional work visas during a six-month moritorium, according to the the Washington Examiner. These visas would not expire and would only be accessible for individuals without criminal backgrounds, with Lindell saying those registering would be fingerprinted.

🚨 BREAKING: Mike Lindell just called for amnesty for illegal aliens in Minnesota.

Not only is this guy down by 20 points to Amy Klobuchar, but he’s proposing we surrender to the mob.

There is no winning with this guy. pic.twitter.com/oGuz7HQPGA

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) July 22, 2026

“Now, you’re not a citizen,” Lindell continued. “You can’t vote, but you have this card that now you can work and you can go be paying taxes, be functioning in society.”

He claimed newly-legal immigrants would report illegal immigrants who were behind crimes, and said employers hiring illegals ought to face punishment. “If you’re caught hiring people for cash gain, hiring people for cash, the illegals, you go to prison,” Lindell said. “The CEO will go to prison for 90 days, or to jail.”

The Washington Examiner asked Lindell how he intended to work with the Trump administration, given that the federal government has authority on immigration. He said a local reporter said Trump and the GOP would not appreciate his proposal and recalled his reaction. “And I said, ‘I don’t care.’ I said, This is going to work.’”

“Unbelievable,” wrote Kendall Qualls, an opponent of Lindell who is endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party. “Mike Lindell wants to give illegals immigrants amnesty and Lisa Demuth would give them taxpayer funded healthcare as status changes.”

Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth issued a statement to the Daily Caller. “Amnesty for illegals will only make Minnesota more of a magnet — I would expect this from Amy Klobuchar and Tim Walz, but I’m surprised to see it coming from a fellow GOP candidate for governor,” she said.

“As Speaker I ended taxpayer funded health care for illegal immigrants. I will work with the federal government to deport criminal illegal immigrants instead of giving them amnesty,” Demuth added.

Minnesota became a flashpoint for illegal immigration early in 2026 after investigations into alleged fraud by Somali-tied businesses caught national attention. There are nearly 80,000 residents of Somali background in the state, with a majority in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, according to Minnesota Compass. An illegal immigration crackdown in Minnesota named Operation Metro Surge prompted widespread demonstrations, with fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents taking place.