White House press secretary Sean Spicer explained to illegal immigration critics that they should be patient when it comes to repealing former President Obama’s executive actions on immigration — specifically DACA and DAPA.
Spicer explained during the White House press briefing that President Donald Trump’s focus was on building the wall on the southern border and enforcing it. Any deportation, he explained, would be focused on criminals.
“His priority is first and foremost focused on people who pose a threat to people in our country — to criminals, frankly. And that’s where he wants ICE to focus their efforts,” Spicer said.
Any action on DACA, Spicer added, was dependent on getting the cabinet team together to formalize a widespread solution.
“I think he’s continuing to make sure that his cabinet level team starts to organize and create a plan to move forward with respect to that issue, and that’s where we are right now,” he said.
During the campaign, Trump vowed to terminate the executive actions “immediately.”
“We will immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties, in which he defied federal law and the Constitution to give amnesty to approximately five million illegal immigrants,” he said last August at a campaign rally.
Mark Krikorian, the head of the Center for Immigration Studies, has criticized the administration for not moving quickly enough.
“It is an explicit betrayal of a promise he made — Point number five in his Phoenix speech” on immigration policy, Krikorian told Breitbart News. “That is a red line they have crossed less than three days into their administration.”