--- title: DACA: Donald Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End It description: President Donald Trump struggled with the decision to end the DACA program, the White House said Monday.' canonical: https://time.com/4927934/daca-dreamers-trump-wrestled/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-05T19:16:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:33:02.713Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House: Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA og:description: The President spoke with unnamed recipients of the program. og:url: https://time.com/4927934/daca-dreamers-trump-wrestled/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab803d6be8d3fc9/6988dc660b72e38eb46ef494/daca-hate-politics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5028 og:image:height: 2828 og:image:alt: Trump Immigration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House: Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA twitter:description: The President spoke with unnamed recipients of the program. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8ab803d6be8d3fc9/6988dc660b72e38eb46ef494/daca-hate-politics.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Says President Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=16c4ae06-0acd-470b-ae07-b66d0b9cd557&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: White House Says President Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA [Watch (HLS stream): White House Says President Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xEqey3CI.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2017-09-05. White House Says President Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Sep 5, 2017 7:16 PM UTC White House Says President Trump 'Wrestled' With Decision to End DACA  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Sep 5, 2017 7:16 PM UTC President Trump struggled with the decision to [end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals](http://time.com/4927227/daca-undocumented-dreamers-jeff-sessions/) program, which provides work permits to nearly a million undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors with their parents, the White House said Monday. “The President wrestled with this decision all throughout the weekend,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in the daily White House press briefing Monday. She added that Trump had spoken with people both opposed and in favor of the program, including its recipients, although she did not provide any specifics. President Obama established DACA by executive action in 2012 to [enable undocumented immigrants](http://time.com/4927263/daca-dreamers-trump-sessions/) who had come to the United States with their parents to apply for a two-year work permit which prohibited the possibility of deportation. With the [Trump Administration’s announcement](http://time.com/4927495/donald-trump-statement-daca-rescind/), current recipients of the program whose benefits will expire within six months have until October 5 to apply for a renewal. DACA requests submitted after Sept. 5 will not be accepted, and requests for renewals that have already been submitted will be assessed on an individual basis. Although reports that Trump was planning on rescinding the program surfaced last week, Sanders insisted the President made the decision this weekend, feeling the pressure from a group of conservative attorneys general, who had threatened to sue the administration in court if a decision about the fate of the program was not reached by September 5\. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will rescind DACA, which is shorthand for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, arguing that the program took jobs away from Americans. The administration will now defer to Congress on any legislative solutions. “We’ve been clear throughout the process there was not a final decision made until over the weekend because of the back and forth and the complexity of the issue. And the ability to make the right decision and allow Congress to actually do their job and provide a fix instead of just stopping the program. And that was a big point for the President,” she said. ## Transcript The President voiced and you voiced some objections to the constitutionality of DACA. Where does the President stand on the program itself? I think that in the answers that I've given is that the President has been, and I think part of the reason that this is complicated and one of the reasons he's wrestled with this back and forth In large part is because this is not an easy one, and certainly something where he wants to be able to make a decision with compassion. But at the same time, you can't allow emotion to govern, and this has to be something where the law is put in place. And it's something that he would support if Congress puts it before him. Would he support it if it came with [ CROSSTALK ] Immigration reform. We can't just have one tweak to the immigration system. We need really big fixes and big reform in this process. And we've laid out the principles that we feel are important in that. Today we heard in a statement from Town Speaker Paul Ryan, who said that these so- called dreamers I've done nothing wrong. Was this a difficult decision for the President to take this drastic action, given what he said as recently as February and does he agree with how Speaker Paul Ryan, and these individuals, 800, 000 individuals have done nothing wrong. I think, largely, yes. And that's why I said it was one of the things that the President wrestled with this decision all throughout the weekend. So, I kinda addressed that. So I think that's pretty clear. It was just this weekend that he wrestled with it. It wasn't leading up to it. Well, no. I think we've been clear throughout the process. There wasn't a final decision made until over the weekend because of the back and forth, and the complexity of the issue. The ability to make the right decision and allow Congress to actually do their job and provide a fix instead of just stopping the program. 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