Trump sends mixed messages on DACA

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration late Tuesday said it was open to revisiting an Obama-era policy sheltering thousands of illegal immigrants, after condemning the program earlier in the day. Hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration would wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program over a six-month period, President Donald Trump seemed to change his mind. “Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do),” the president tweeted late Tuesday night, “If they can't, I will revisit this issue!” On the presidential campaign trail, Trump repeatedly berated the DACA program, which postpones deportation of certain non-citizens brought to the United States illegally as children, and on Tuesday he criticized President Barack Obama for initiating the program. But the president has softened his language about DACA recipients themselves. “I have a love for these people and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. In statements released Tuesday afternoon, many evangelical leaders rushed to the defense of DACA recipients and urged Congress to figure out a solution for the nearly 800,000 immigrants still in the United States because of the program. “Congress should do the right thing and provide a solution for those who were brought here by parents as children,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.