President Trump’s chief of staff favors “a path to citizenship” for residents of the United States who entered the country on an emergency basis and were permitted to stay for years, he said Friday.

White House chief of staff John Kelly focused on residents who have temporary protected status under a Department of Homeland Security program designed to help victims of natural disaster or other short-term crisis. But successive presidents have allowed some beneficiaries of the program to remain in the United States for as many as two decades, leading to an outcry as the Trump administration has moved to revoke that legal status.