President Trump is ready to end the “Dreamers” program covering some 800,000 undocumented immigrants, a new report said Thursday — but the White House swiftly shot it down, saying no decision had been reached.
Trump was set to announce that he would end the program as it currently exists, allowing it to “lapse” as early as Friday, Fox News reported.
Those currently in the program would be allowed to stay until their work permits expired, the network said.
But administration spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the matter was still under review.
“A final decision on that front has not been made,” she said.
“This is under review, there are a lot of components that need to be looked at.”
Asked whether Trump stood by his earlier statement that Dreamers need not worry because he had “a big heart,” Sanders reiterated that he did.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was created by the Obama administration in 2012, giving undocumented immigrants brought to the US as kids a reprieve from deportation.
The program provided them with temporary work permits if they submitted biometric data to the government, passed a background check and maintained a clean police record.
To be eligible, applicants had to prove they had arrived in the US before age 16 and were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, and were in the US as of that date.
They also had to have lived here since June 15, 2007.
Male Dreamers were also required to register with Selective Service, and all applicants had to have graduated from an American high school, obtained a GED or been admitted to an institution of higher education.
Trump had pledged on the election campaign trail to scrap all of former President Obama’s executive orders on immigration, including DACA.
With Post wires