Trump Tells DACA Recipients They Won't Be Deported In The Next 6 Months

Two days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the impending termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, President Trump told DACA recipients they "have nothing to worry about." Further throwing the futures of 800,000 people into confusion, Trump wrote DACA recipients concerned about their status shouldn't worry, adding there will be "no action" taken against them in a tweet on Thursday morning.

In a follow-up tweet, The Daily Beast's Sam Stein explained that Trump's tweet pertained to deportations. According to Stein, DACA recipients still need to apply for renewal by Oct. 5, but they will not have to worry about being deported in the six months before DACA is fully terminated. Stein also indicated that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi encouraged Trump to write this particular tweet.

Politico's Heather Caygle initially confirmed this report, tweeting that Pelosi had actually called Trump on Thursday morning for this purpose, before receiving a report from a Democratic aide who said that Trump had been the one to call Pelosi — not the other way around. Stein also cited a Democratic aide as saying that Pelosi wanted Trump to "make clear DREAMers won't be subject to deportation in 6 month window.”

On Tuesday, the Trump administration said that although it was rescinding DACA, Congress would have six months to take action and reimplement the Obama-era policy.

A Democratic aide reportedly told The Hill that Pelosi addressed her exchange with Trump during a House Democratic whip meeting on Thursday morning. According to the aide, Pelosi told her colleagues at the meeting that she had asked Trump to clarify that DACA recipients would not be subjected to deportation over the next six months. However, as several replies to Trump's DACA tweet pointed out, DACA recipients are concerned about the rest of their lives — not just about the next six months — and temporary reassurance will not safeguard DACA protections in the long term.

The Trump administration's phasing out of DACA will reportedly operate on the following terms: If a DACA recipient's permit is slated to expire within the next six months, they have until the Oct. 5 deadline to apply for renewal. However, if their permit does not expire until after the end of the six-month period — in March — they will not be able to apply for renewal unless Congress successfully counteracts the Trump administration's termination of DACA.

Despite the vagueness with which Trump has discussed the elimination of DACA protections, he insisted on Wednesday that there are "no mixed signals at all" in how his administration plans to address DACA recipients' fate following the March deadline.

"Congress, I really believe, wants to take care of the situation," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. "Even very conservative members of Congress, I've seen it firsthand. If they don't, we're going to see what we're going to do. But I can tell you I really believe Congress wants to take care of it."