President-elect Donald Trump says that he wants to work with Democrats on a "plan" to help illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as minors and were protected from deportation under an Obama-era order -- echoing a similar push he attempted in 2019.
Trump was asked in an interview with NBC News on Sunday about "dreamers," an activist-preferred term for illegal immigrants who arrived as children, and whether they would be included in his plan for mass deportations.
"Dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the Dreamers, because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people now, they don't even speak the language of their country, and yes, we're going to do something about them," Trump said.
"I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan, but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the Dreamers. The Dreamers, we're talking many years ago. They were brought into this country many years ago, some of them are no longer young people, and in many cases, they become successful," Trump continued. "They have great jobs. In some cases, they have small businesses. In some cases, they might have large businesses, and we're going to have to do something with them."
When asked if he wanted them to be able to stay, he said, "I do. I want to be able to work something out."
"I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out," he said.
Then-President Barack Obama signed the executive order, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), in 2012, which shielded more than 800,000 illegal immigrants from being deported and gave them the ability to work in the U.S.
The Trump administration pushed unsuccessfully to end DACA, being blocked by the Supreme Court. It remains before the courts with a lawsuit challenging the legality of the policy under review in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
However, as the Trump administration pushed to end DACA, Trump proposed an additional three years of protection for DACA recipients and others in exchange for money to build a wall along the southern border. Democrats rejected that deal as "hostage taking."
Immigration activists have pushed for the passage of the DREAM Act, which has been introduced multiple times. That legislation would go much further than DACA and grant a pathway to citizenship for what advocates estimate to be 2 million illegal immigrants.
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Trump has promised to launch a mass deportation campaign when he enters office in January, where he will also have a Republican House and Senate. Ahead of that, some Democrats have been calling on President Biden to extend existing protections for some illegal immigrants -- including DACA recipients.
Immigration activists were unimpressed by Trump’s comments. Bruna Sollod, senior political director of United We Dream, said in response to Trump's comments, "Actions speak louder than words, and Donald Trump’s track record in attacking DACA, fueling depraved disinformation and violence, and scapegoating immigrants extend back to his very first day in office to today."
Sollod said that Trump should "immediately call on his allies in Texas to drop the lawsuit against DACA and stop his mass detention and deportation agenda now."
