WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he’ll be announcing a decision in the coming days on the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children – immigrants he’s calling “terrific” and says he loves.
“We love the dreamers, we love everybody,” Trump told reporters Friday, using a shorthand term for the nearly 800,000 young people who were given a reprieve from deportation and temporary work permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program created by the Obama administration.
Asked what he would say to young immigrants who are awaiting his move, scared about their fate, he replied: “I think the dreamers are terrific.”
Trump has been torn over what to do with DACA as he faces a Tuesday deadline set by a group of Republican state lawmakers who are threatening to challenge the program in court unless Trump ends it by that date.
Trump had slammed the program as illegal “amnesty” during his campaign and pledged to end it on his first day in office. But he has changed his rhetoric since the election, telling those covered they could “rest easy” and continuing to grant new two-year, renewable work permits.