President Barack Obama told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday that he stressed to Donald Trump the importance of his 2012 executive action that shielded so-called "Dreamers" from deportation and granted them work permits — a program that Trump vowed to dismantle as he campaigned during his presidential bid.
Obama relayed details of his immigration conversation with the president-elect during a morning confab at the Capitol with House and Senate Democrats. Though the meeting focused largely on Obama’s health care law, the outgoing president separately noted to lawmakers that he “spoke to Trump very directly” about beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to one member who attended.
The lawmaker said Obama indicated that a fight over the future of DACA recipients would be one issue that would prompt him to get back in the political arena.
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