President-elect Donald Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, are preparing to execute a plan to deport the largest number of undocumented immigrants in U.S. history. As part of this effort, the topic of “Dreamers” has once again come to the forefront.
Dreamers, under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), are undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children with their families.
In most cases, Dreamers know only American life, as the U.S. is the country where they grew up. Former President Barack Obama signed an executive action for DACA. The action protected an estimated 800,000 undocumented immigrant children who entered the country illegally.
Over the weekend, Trump said he wants to work with Democrats on a plan for Dreamers.
“I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker. “But, the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the Dreamers. The Dreamers, we’re talking many years ago, were brought into this country, many years ago. Some of them are no longer young people and, in many cases, they become successful. They have great jobs, in some cases, they have small businesses. In some cases, they might have large businesses and we’re going to have to do something with them.”
Welker asked, “You want them to be able to stay? That’s what you’re saying?”
“I do,” Trump responded. “I want to be able to work something out, and it should’ve been able to be worked out over the last three or four years, and it never got worked out.”
In 2017, Trump attempted to end DACA and called on Congress to address the issue. However, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the first Trump administration in 2020, ruling to keep DACA in place.
A series of lawsuits in the lower courts threaten to dismantle the program because Congress has not passed legislation to protect Dreamers.
In response to Trump’s comments, the senior political director of United We Dream, an immigrant advocacy group, issued the following statement:
“Trump and his terror team – including Stephen Miller and Tom Homan – mean it when they say no one is off the table when it comes to mass deportations. If Trump truly means otherwise, he will immediately call on his allies in Texas to drop the lawsuit against DACA and stop his mass detention and deportation agenda now. Until then, we will continue to shore up protections for our communities and demand elected officials at all levels show up to protect people in their community from Trump’s mass detention plans.”
Bruna Sollod, Senior Political Director of United We Dream
Homan, a staunch ally of Trump, agreed Congress needs to step up and pass immigration reform.
On Monday, Dec. 9, Homan told Fox News Congress could address Dreamers in a bipartisan immigration deal, including increased border security measures.
“Well look, the president in his first term put a plan on the table to address the Dreamers, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer shut it down because part of the plan was giving them money for the border wall,” Homan said. “So, President Trump will put it on the table again. But I would not go forward with it until the Democrats show this president that they’re willing to secure this border and willing to support him and the removal of public safety threats that are illegal here in the United States. So, it’s going to be put on the table once again. And I support the president in that idea.”
Trump said he wants to see Republicans and Democrats work together to pass immigration reform. He also stressed he would pressure Congress to reach an agreement.
Both Trump and Homan emphasized their first priority is to remove dangerous, criminal migrants from the streets and return them to their home countries.
