Reprieve shaky, migrants waiting

Trump hints at softer stance

WASHINGTON -- Missing from executive orders issued during President Donald Trump's first week in office was any mention of the fate of hundreds of thousands of young migrants protected from deportation by a program started under former President Barack Obama.

That omission has left immigration advocates hopeful that Trump has softened his opposition to what he once described as "illegal amnesty."

Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have said they are working on a plan that will address the status of the roughly 750,000 people currently protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The program allows young people who were brought into the country illegally as children to stay and obtain work permits.

Neither the president nor GOP leaders have disclosed details on their discussions, though they have suggested that those protected under the program won't face immediate deportation. Whether they will be allowed to continue to work remains unclear. Trump said last week that he intends to reveal a proposal within a month.

"They shouldn't be very worried," Trump told ABC News. "I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody. ... Where you have great people that are here that have done a good job, they should be far less worried."

Trump's remarks were a shift from his stance during his presidential campaign, when he promised to quickly end the program.

"We will immediately terminate President Obama's ... illegal executive amnesties, in which he defied federal law and the Constitution," Trump said in August.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has argued for a more compassionate approach in dealing with these young migrants. He has discussed the issue privately with the president and recently said congressional Republicans had been working with his team on a solution.

Obama said he ordered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program only after Congress failed to enact a broader immigration overhaul. The status of the migrants, some of whom have little or no connection to the country where they were born, has worried immigration advocates since Trump's election.

The program would be relatively simple for Trump to reverse. The policy does not require an executive order.

As of Friday afternoon, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it was still processing work permits related to the program.

Trump's White House is said to be divided on the how to handle the issue.

Those who have pushed Trump to embrace more restrictive immigration policies, including policy adviser Stephen Miller, are said to prefer a tougher approach. On the other side are voices such as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who said recently that the White House is planning to work with House and Senate leadership "to get a long-term solution on that issue."

Trump also faces pressure from Republican lawmakers such as Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who has chafed at signals from Trump aides that migrants covered by the program are not a priority for deportation.

King said Trump risks a backlash from his political base if he doesn't act swiftly, "because it was a clear and definitive promise that he made" on the campaign trail.

"And when you hear these kinds of statements coming out of the chief of staff and some of these statements that echo pretty closely out of the speaker of the House, it gives real pause to rule-of-law conservatives," he said.

Advocates on both sides are expecting a compromise in which the president perhaps ends the program and then works with Congress on a permanent solution that allows those migrants to stay in the country.

Mark Gonzales, the president of the Hispanic Action Network, said Trump's recent executive actions have "definitely shaken up our Hispanic community and the immigrant community in particular." But he said the recent comments by Trump and his aides show that young migrants protected by program likely don't have to be alarmed.

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for tighter restrictions on immigration, said he's open to a compromise in which, for instance, those previously covered by the program receive green cards in exchange for other concessions.

"Suspending DACA processing is an extremely simple, clear-cut thing. And if they haven't done it by now, there's some reason for it," Krikorian said.

Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner and Richard Lardner of The Associated Press.

A Section on 01/30/2017

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