House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday that illegal immigrant Dreamers don’t have to worry about being deported under a Trump administration, telling a mother that there won’t be a deportation force “knocking on your door this year.”
Mr. Ryan also said Congress won’t create the deportation force that Donald Trump talked about during the election campaign because there is no need.
“There won’t be a deportation force,” he told CNN in a town hall.
The network confronted Mr. Ryan with an illegal immigrant mother who is also a Dreamer under President Obama’s 2012 amnesty, and with a woman whose son was killed by a repeat criminal who was in the U.S. illegally.
Mr. Ryan said the charge he has taken from Mr. Trump is to target the serious criminals for deportation while finding a way to grant Dreamers and other low-priority illegal immigrants legal status.
“That’s the problem he wants to focus on,” he said, pointing to the mother who lost her son. “This is not the focus,” he then said, pointing at the illegal immigrant mother, who stood with her daughter.
“If you’re worried about some deportation force coming and knocking on your door this year, don’t worry about that,” he assured the illegal immigrant.
The government already has a deportation force: the agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mr. Trump’s campaign plan called for tripling the number of ICE agents.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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