President Obama plans to continue fighting for immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy even after leaving the White House.
Barack Obama (Getty Images)
Obama met with Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss strategy going into the first days of Donald Trump’s presidency, and lawmakers at the meeting told Politico that the president insinuated that protecting those children — also known as DREAMERS — could “prompt him to get back into the political arena.”
“His message was, those are good kids who didn’t do anything wrong,” one source explained. “That was heartfelt. He brought that up.”
Donald Trump meets with Barack Obama in the Oval Office (Getty Images)
Lawmakers present at the meeting added that President Obama told them he “spoke to Trump very directly” in conversations following the 2016 election about protecting DREAMERs.
740,000 illegal immigrants are currently living in the United States under protected status obtained through DACA.
Obama initiated the policy through executive action back in the summer of 2012.