Trump says he's open to a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 25 January 2018

While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Trump said he is open to a pathway to citizenship for undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children, putting him at odds with some of the most conservative members of the Republican Party.

"We're going to morph into it," he said. "It's going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years. Somebody does a great job. They worked hard. It gives incentive to do a great job. They've done terrifically. Whether they have a little company or whether they work or whatever they're doing — if they do a great job, I think it's a nice thing to have incentive of, after a period of years being able to become a citizen." Last year, Trump said he was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protected undocumented young people from deportation, and gave Congress until March 5 to come up with a legislative solution.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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