President-elect Donald Trump has said he’s open to working with Democratic Party lawmakers to make a deal on allowing Dreamers to stay in the United States.
“I will work with the Democrats on a plan,” Trump said in an interview with “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker that aired on Dec. 8.
That’s in reference to recipients of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which sought to prevent deportations of those who entered the country illegally as children under the age of 16. The recipients of Obama’s 2012 executive action are dubbed “Dreamers.”
The decision on whether to allow these people to remain in the country has been debated for more than a decade, but Trump indicated he’s now ready to work toward an agreement on the issue.
Trump said that his first priority on immigration would be the mass deportations proposal that formed a pillar of his 2024 campaign, while action on Dreamers would “come later.”
“We have to do something about the Dreamers,” Trump said. “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.”
Trump said his party was “very open to the Dreamers.”
Trump noted that many of those who received protections under the program “in some cases ... have small businesses.”
“[In] some cases, they might have large businesses,” he said.
The issue has at times divided Republicans and Democrats. Republicans have said that Obama’s executive actions were an overreach of power, while Democrats have noted that many Dreamers only speak English and have no lived experience in their country of origin.
No agreement on how to respond to the program has been successful in Congress, with lawmakers at loggerheads over the issue. Some Republicans have expressed support for DACA in the past, breaking from others in their party.
It’s often linked to the broader issue of illegal immigration and border security—long one of the most difficult legislative issues because of the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, which has been insurmountable for a litany of proposals to address related issues.
Mass Deportations
During the Dec. 8 interview, Welker asked Trump about his mass deportation plans.Trump has long said that his first priority would be deporting those who pose a serious threat to American citizens, including those with a criminal record and those with significant psychiatric issues.
“We have to get the criminals out of our country,” Trump said. “We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institutions, no matter what country it is.”
He also reaffirmed his support for general mass deportations.
When asked whether his plan was to deport all illegal immigrants in the country over the next four years, Trump replied, “Well, I think you have to do it,” calling it “a very tough thing to do.”
He said it was necessary to adhere to the U.S. laws and regulations and to address the costs of illegal immigration for the country.
While the exact number of illegal immigrants in the United States is unknown, it’s estimated to be more than 10 million people, a situation likely to raise logistical challenges related to identifying, litigating, and removing those in the country illegally.
