WASHINGTON _ Just over a day after agreeing with Democratic leaders to make an immigration deal, President Donald Trump on Friday took a hard line against allowing close family members to follow new immigrants, a position that could stymie bipartisan legislation.
Trump wrote on Twitter that any immigration bill cannot include "chain migration," a term used by advocates of limiting immigrants to criticize how new U.S. citizens can sponsor family members for legal status.
If Trump sticks to that position, it could sap Democrats' support for Wednesday's tentative agreement between Trump and the top two Democrats in Congress to seek a law giving legal status to roughly 800,000 so-called Dreamers. Those are mostly young people brought to the country illegally as children.
Immigration hardliners, including in the White House, are concerned that a law might allow beneficiaries to eventually become U.S. citizens, and they in turn would sponsor their parents and close relatives for lawful permanent residence, enlarging the number of legal immigrants in the country.
The surprise maneuvering follows Trump's announcement last week that he would phase out Dreamers' protection from deportation under the five-year-old Obama administration program known as DACA _ for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The program allows them to work and attend college after a federal background check. Beneficiaries' two-year work permits and deportation deferrals will begin expiring in March if Congress doesn't act.
A significant majority of Americans, including many Republicans, support and sympathize with the group, and Trump immediately sought to allay the impact of his order, reflecting a campaign promise, to end DACA.
Trump came to an agreement over dinner Wednesday night with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer to write those DACA protections into law in exchange for increased spending on border security, though not for his promised southern wall.
Trump campaigned on cracking down on illegal immigration, ending DACA, as well as reducing legal immigration. He now faces intense pressure from his core supporters, some of whom contend he is backing off those promises.
