President Donald Trump, beginning a section of his State of the Union speech on immigration, rhetorically played off the ongoing efforts to reach a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, saying, “Americans are dreamers, too.”
While addressing Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said, “I am extending an open hand to work with the members of both parties — Democrats and Republicans — to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion and creed. My duty and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend Americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities and their right to the American dream.”
“Dreamers” is a name often used to reference the thousands of recipients of the DACA program, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US at a young age.
Trump went on to call for Congress to review the White House’s immigration proposal, which presents a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants and calls for tighter border security and the end of the visa lottery as well as family-based or “chain” migration.