President Trump said Friday that so-called “Dreamers,” or children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents, could “rest easy” under his administration’s immigration policies.
Trump’s immigration enforcement officers are “not after the Dreamers,” the president told the Associated Press in an interview Friday.
“We are after the criminals,” Trump said. “That is our policy.”
Trump has previously suggested that, contrary to his campaign rhetoric, he would not immediately reverse the executive action Barack Obama signed shielding young undocumented immigrants from deportation. That memorandum, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), has proven particularly controversial due to the sensitive fact that it deals with children.
However, Trump faced new questions this week about his administration’s commitment to upholding DACA when the first dreamer protected under the policy was removed from the country.
Trump told the AP that the case of Juan Manuel Montes, the deported dreamer, was “a little different” than the typical DACA case.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has reportedly disputed Montes’ account of the events that led to his removal, claiming Montes was apprehended at the border while attempting to climb a fence between Mexico and the U.S. and not — as he has claimed — plucked from the streets of Calexico, Calif.
