On Monday, a flurry of pronouncements and directives were made by President Donald Trump, which made his priorities clear – reforming tax and trade policies in the US. At the same time, the new President seemed to begin moving away from earlier insinuations that he would end the deferred action program that protects from deportation almost 750,000 young immigrants who arrived in the country as minors.
Trump had a busy time during his first weekend in office, meeting with lawmakers and business leaders, freezing the great majority of federal hiring, and ending funding for overseas groups that provide women with referrals to abortion clinics. Most telling was his instant move away from multinational trade agreements in preference to bilateral talks. This backed up his campaign promises to pull away from trade deals that he believes leave American workers out in the cold.
Press Secretary, Sean Spicer was left to break it to the mainstream media that the Trump administration would not be immediately looking to end the controversial deferred action program, which was created via executive order by President Barack Obama back in 2012, despite earlier indications that the new President would do just that when elected.
On Monday, applications were still being accepted by US Citizenship and Immigration Services for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, according to an agency spokesman, Steve Blando. Spicer says that Trump’s immigration focus lies with deporting undocumented criminal immigrants who threaten public safety.