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President Donald Trump.
- President Donald Trump warned Democrats on Friday that any deal on saving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program would also have to include funding for a border wall and an end of certain US immigration policies.
- The Trump administration ended the DACA program in September but gave Congress time to work out a legislative fix.
- Work permits and deportation deferrals for the nearly 800,000 young immigrants covered by DACA expire March 6.
President Donald Trump railed against US immigration policies and renewed calls for a border wall with Mexico in a tweet Friday morning.
He also made a veiled threat over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, signaling that he is only willing to make a deal on the nearly 800,000 young immigrants protected under the Obama-era policy if Democrats compromise on the border wall and immigration reform.
"The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc," Trump said. "We must protect our Country at all cost!"
In September, the Trump administration announced it would end the DACA program, a controversial policy that protects from deportation young immigrants, known as "dreamers," brought to the US illegally as minors. He delayed the program's termination to give Congress a 6-month window to finalize a deal on the issue.
Work permits and deportation deferrals for the immigrants expire March 6, by which point Trump is hoping to make a deal that allows them to stay in the US while also securing funding for his proposed wall along the southern border and an end to the diversity visa program and what he calls "chain migration" policies.
"I'd love to do a DACA deal," Trump told reporters in October, "but we have to get something very substantial for it, including the wall."