President Donald Trump's staff expressed concern that he didn't fully understand the consequences of ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, The New York Times reports.
"I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents," Trump wrote in a statement released Tuesday. "But we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws."
An anonymous source told the Times, "As late as one hour before the decision was to be announced, administration officials privately expressed concern that Mr. Trump might not fully grasp the details of the steps he was about to take, and when he discovered their full impact, would change his mind."
Many of Trump's conservative colleagues have expressed their support for the program, which grants amnesty to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, and concern that ending DACA would leave hundreds of thousands of young adults in America at risk of deportation to countries they never lived in. Trump himself seemed to express support for Congress creating protective legislation in a tweet Tuesday morning.
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