Trump to decide fate of ‘Dreamers’ on Tuesday

WASHINGTON — The White House says President Donald Trump will announce a decision Tuesday on the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children — immigrants the president is 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.

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 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 and continued to grant new twoyear, renewable work permits.

Many DACA advocates expect him to announce that he will halt the issuance of new work permits under the program, effectively phasing it out.

Another option under consideration would be for the White House to announce that it will allow the lawsuit to go forward and not defend DACA in court, taking the matter out of its hands.

One source said Trump is likely to choose to end or phase out the program but that he is looking for ways to soften the blow, perhaps by ending the program at a future date in order to giving Congress time to come up with an alternative protection.

Advocates and lawmakers are applying pressure with Twitter messages, public comments and events. House Speaker Paul Ryan hopes Trump will choose not to roll back DACA protections and give Congress time to act.

“These are kids who know no other country, who are brought here by their parents and don’t know another home,” he told Wisconsin radio station WCLO.