Speaking to reporters in Forest Heights, Maryland, on the sidelines of a conference about drones and counter-drone technologies in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, Mullin said Monday that he and Trump have not discussed concrete immigration policy changes in the aftermath of the midterm elections. Trump has said he could work with Democrats on immigration, but Mullin said no policy-specific conversation had occurred.

The midterms highlighted voters’ disaffection with the administration’s immigration enforcement, according to the Associated Press. Since the election, Trump has said he could work with Democrats on immigration and, during a Sunday “60 Minutes” interview, said his deportation policy was too aggressive for voters. Mullin reiterated Trump’s willingness to work with Democrats on Monday.

Since the election, Mullin said, he has been fielding calls from Democrats with whom he worked in Congress on bipartisan issues. Mullin said in a briefing with reporters, “I’ve let the president know that those calls are coming in. And the president has said, you know, let’s start working with them and then let’s meet at some point. So that’s the extent of the conversation.” He added, “We haven’t had any conversation just on policy.”

Mullin, who was a senator and House representative before becoming Homeland Security secretary earlier this year, said he worked on immigration reform in both the House and the Senate and with Democrats on bipartisan issues. He said he thought a bipartisan approach was the only way to get anything done.

Mullin said any bipartisan agreement would exclude amnesty for people living in the U.S. illegally. In the same statement, he said, “I was working on immigration reform when I was in the House and when I was in the Senate. I think the only way you can actually get it is by a bipartisan approach. But amnesty’s never going to be a solution. We’re never gonna allow amnesty to happen. So that’s a full stop.” The Associated Press characterized amnesty as “long a red line for Republicans that has contributed to the intractableness of the immigration issue.”

Mullin also raised DACA, which he described as a form of protection from deportation for children brought to the country illegally by their parents. He said: “Now, if we wanna have an immigration reform to where we can look at DACA and figure out a way that these individuals can become maybe legal permanent citizens or something like this, that’ll be up to Congress to do that.”

Since the election, Trump has elevated Stephen Miller to chief of staff. The Associated Press called him the “key architect of his immigration crackdown” and said the appointment raised questions about how cooperation with Democrats might work as long as enforcement remained strict. Mullin called Miller an “excellent choice” in a social media post last week.

Mullin’s account left the post-election effort at the contact stage: Trump had told him to begin working with the Democratic callers, while no policy discussion had taken place. Mullin did not identify the policy changes that could emerge from those contacts.