President-Elect Donald Trump made no secret throughout his campaign of his intent to take a hard line against immigration. However, The New York Timesreports that the subject matter of a recent call with the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, and comments Trump made recently suggest that he may, at least to some extent, be changing his tune.
Much of the current controversy involves an executive action devised by President Obama known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which would allow certain protections to immigrants who met specific criteria and arrived in the United States as children. Though Trump had, at one point, asserted that he would eliminate the DACA program in its entirety, comments he made in a recent magazine interview indicated he may be taking a more sympathetic look at the bigger picture.
Trump’s call to end DACA protections has also raised ire among numerous elected officials. During the meeting with the Chicago mayor, Trump was given a letter expressing the wishes of 14 mayors who believed that DACA should continue on as intended.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Trump alluded to a possible, yet-to-be-publicized immigration bill in the days following the call that he believed would not only help resolve the DACA issue, but also appease both sides of the equation. Though the Chicago mayor was reluctant to fully publicize the matters discussed during the call, he noted that he referenced Chicago’s sanctuary city status repeatedly and made sure the president-elect was aware that he intended to keep it as such.
