DACA: Donald Trump set to scrap 'Dreamers' programme protecting undocumented child immigrants

Scheme introduced by President Obama grants work permits to hundreds of thousands of people

Donald Trump on Friday told reporters. 'We love the Dreamers' (AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump is expected to scrap the “Dreamers” programme introduced by Barack Obama, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme, known as DACA, prevents nearly 800,000 men and women from being deported and gives them permits to work in America legally.

Those who qualify for the programme, by being able to prove they had arrived in the country before the age of 16, had been residents for several years and had never committed a crime, are known as “Dreamers”.

Many of the children in the programme were brought to the US as young children and have little recollection of connection to the countries they arrived from.

Mr Trump called the programme an illegal “amnesty” during his presidential campaign and promised to scrap it on his first day in office.

But after taking office in February, he appears to have wrestled with the issue and recently called the topic “a very, very difficult subject for me".

The president has also faced fierce opposition to ending the programme from both Democrats and members of his own Republican Party.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is among a number of politicians who last week urged the president to delay scrapping the programme to give Congress time to create a legal solution.

“These are kids who know no other country, who are brought here by their parents and don’t know another home," he told Wisconsin radio station WCLO. "And so I really do believe that there needs to be a legislative solution.”

At the same time, a group of Republican state officials have threatened to sue Mr Trump's administration through a Texas federal court if he does not end the programme by 5 September.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos joined nearly 400 business executives in signing an open letter to the President last week urging him to protect the “Dreamers” under any plans for immigration reform.

They argued that the US economy would suffer were they to face deportation.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook tweeted on Sunday: “250 of my Apple co-workers are #Dreamers. I stand with them. They deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values.”

However, the effect of ending the DACA programme would have on the US economy was downplayed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told Fox News that he was “less concerned about the economic impact”.

Additional reporting by agencies