U.S. president throws a wrench into any immigration deal

WASHINGTON—Just over a day after agreeing with Democratic leaders to make an immigration deal, President Donald Trump on Friday took a hard line against allowing close family members to follow new immigrants, a position that could stymie bipartisan legislation.

Trump wrote on Twitter that any immigration bill cannot include “chain migration,” a term used by advocates of limiting immigrants to criticize how new U.S. citizens can sponsor family members for legal status.

If Trump sticks to that position, it could sap Democrats’ support for Wednesday’s tentative agreement between Trump and the top two Democrats in Congress to seek a law giving legal status to roughly 800,000 so-called Dreamers. Those are mostly young people brought to the country illegally as children.

Immigration hardliners, including in the White House, are concerned that a law might allow beneficiaries to eventually become U.S. citizens, and they in turn would sponsor their parents and close relatives for lawful permanent residence, enlarging the number of legal immigrants in the country.

The surprise maneuvering follows Trump’s announcement last week that he would phase out Dreamers’ protection from deportation under the fiveyear-old Obama administration program known as DACA—for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The program allows them to work and attend college after a federal background check. Beneficiaries’ two-year work permits and deportation deferrals will begin expiring in March if Congress doesn’t act.