President-elect Donald Trump is once again softening his rhetoric on immigration, pledging to “work something out” with so-called Dreamers in an interview with TIME magazine.
“Dreamers” are young immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. Congress has proposed legislation to grant legal status to these immigrants, provided they are enrolled in school or in the military. Efforts to pass such laws were unsuccessful, so President Obama in 2012 decided use executive orders to grant work permits to about 740,000 Dreamers in the United States.
Trump has pledged to overturn these executive orders, but hinted at some form of accommodation for young illegal immigrants in the interview with TIME, which recently named him “Person of the Year” for 2016.
Trump suddenly sounds very different on “Dreamers” than his campaign message and platform. https://t.co/u3H1N3ynVD pic.twitter.com/1ZgdQc1EaL
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 7, 2016
“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump said. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”
A group of Republican and Democrats in the U.S. Senate is drafting legislation that would retain benefits for Dreamers in the event that Trump overturns Obama’s executive actions.
Trump’s most prominent campaign pledge during the election was to build a wall along the southern border and force Mexico to pay for it. The president-elect has since acknowledged that the wall might look like a fence in certain areas. Little is known about Trump’s efforts since the election to collect payment from the Mexican government.
Trump supporters with social media accounts went online to express their outrage at the president-elect’s change of heart with respect to Dreamers.
@DailyCaller AMERICANS FIRST!
— Sami Flores (@3samiflores) December 7, 2016
@DailyCaller Lindsey Graham Trump …What about the dreamers that are American citizens?? ……@realDonaldTrump = campaign promises broken
— @HNLbeach (@UgeneKrawec) December 7, 2016
@DailyCaller they aint my dream more of a nightmare boot em idc what their age is do it legally
— Jim (@royalsoda1) December 7, 2016
@DailyCaller yeah, first off stop dreaming. Get to work. On the wall. On the Mexican side.
— Fantastic (@fisenne1) December 7, 2016
@thehill So basically everything he said abt immigration was a lie. No wall no deporting no keeping Muslims out. What a fake
— David Ludwig (@DavidLudwig8) December 7, 2016
@thehill Working a deal for who….yourself and your fans or for Dreamers? Cannot have it both ways. We know you like your cake and eat it.
— gerda brown (@boomergmb40) December 7, 2016
@thehill Why? Americans owe them nothing.
— I don't like you (@DontLikeYou662) December 7, 2016
@thehill If that happens then we're done we wrote our history. Stop going back on your campaign promise damn you Trump.
— Kenneth Mosetti (@KMosetti) December 7, 2016
TAKE THE POLL
