Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, is proposing a six-month amnesty window that would grant illegal immigrants conditional work visas — a plan already drawing fierce conservative pushback.
The policy, which Lindell detailed in a 53-minute interview with the Washington Examiner, would allow illegal immigrants who have committed no crimes beyond crossing the border to apply for what he calls “conditional work visas” that never expire but carry strict enforcement conditions.
“Six months, all the illegals here, immigrants, would have to go get what’s going to be called a work, a conditional work visa. They don’t expire, they just have conditions.”
The plan has three main components:
Immediate deportation of the 1,300 illegal immigrants in Minnesota currently housed for felonies (murder, rape, other violent crimes) — saving the state $110 million annually by forcing them to serve time in their home countries.
A six-month window for other illegal immigrants to register, get fingerprinted, and receive a conditional work visa allowing them to work legally and pay taxes. The visas have one ironclad condition: commit any crime above a gross misdemeanor and you’re immediately deported.
Criminal penalties for employers caught hiring illegal immigrants for cash after the six-month window — 90 days in jail for the CEO, no fines. Lindell said fines become “the cost of doing business,” so the penalty is prison time instead.
Lindell told the Washington Examiner the plan would capture $7.5 billion in wages currently paid illegally in Minnesota, generating roughly $800 million in employer-level taxes and $560 million in worker-level taxes.
He argued the policy solves the conservative divide over immigration enforcement by removing violent criminals immediately while allowing otherwise law-abiding workers to come out of the shadows.
“Bad people should go, and good people should stay,” Lindell 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… that’s coming out tomorrow.”
Lindell’s plan includes a whistleblower component — illegal immigrants who obtain the conditional visas would be incentivized to report criminals still operating in the shadows, effectively turning the community into a self-policing system.
“The illegals that are left, that didn’t come in to get that conditional visa, work visa. They’re criminals,” Lindell said. “But guess who’s going to tell on them? We’re going to have whistleblower laws by the illegals that are now got these cards.”
The visas would also open a pathway to legal residency — and potentially citizenship. Lindell said those holding conditional work visas “can also go apply to be a citizen,” and he proposed using tax revenue from employer enforcement to subsidize the citizenship process for visa holders and others waiting in line legally.
After the interview, Lindell pushed back against characterizations of the plan as “amnesty,” texting the Washington Examiner: “There is no amnesty!! I done have a policy??? Not sure what you are talking about ??”
He later took to social media claiming his words were taken out of context — though the Washington Examiner published a full 13-minute transcript of his immigration remarks.
Lindell’s plan faces an immediate political obstacle: it mirrors amnesty proposals conservatives have rejected for decades. The conditional work visa structure — offering legal status to millions who entered illegally, with a path to citizenship — is the core framework of the 2013 Gang of Eight bill that Republicans killed.
Lindell is running for Minnesota governor in a crowded Republican primary. President Trump endorsed him in April, calling him “a tireless fighter for Election Integrity.”
The Minnesota GOP has not yet weighed in on Lindell’s immigration proposal.
