Trump has reportedly fretted over what to do about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals legislation, and how to handle the fates of children brought to this country by undocumented immigrants. Apparently his decision about DACA is coming on Tuesday according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, with the holiday weekend possibly spent mulling over the many protests to its removal. But with this announcement, Sanders might have telegraphed the direction that the president is leaning, repeatedly insisting that Trump “loves everybody,” a turn of phrase that some note could spell trouble for so-called Dreamers.
Sanders said in Friday’s press briefing that the president is in the “process of finalizing that decision and those details” pertaining to DACA. She explained:
“We’re actually going to make that announcement on Tuesday of next week. And the president’s priorities on immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits our economy and American workers. The president has been very clear: He loves people, and he wants to make sure that this decision is done correctly. And so that’s what he’s doing now, is finalizing that part.”
As Deadline notes, in the parlance of the Trump administration, Sanders’ insistence that the President loves Dreamers could be more foreboding than it sounds. The turn of phrase could signal that DACA is about to be rolled back “much the same way they’ve learned that when Trump jokes that someone in his sphere has become super famous it signals they’re on their way out the door.”
Trump has said before that he would treat the some-odd 800,000 Dreamers with “great heart,” and has remarked about how he “loves kids” and his own status as a father and grandfather impacted how he was considering the DACA issue. However, he also stated that some Dreamers are gang member and drug dealers, and has talked about the program as one of “illegal amnesty.” It may be that the children of undocumented immigrants may soon have bigger concerns than roadside checkpoints along Harvey evacuation routes and the possibility of running into ICE agents at hurricane shelters. Trump might love everybody, but he could be about to boot Dreamers out.