Obama: Trump should think ‘long and hard’ before deporting those protected by DACA

President Obama said Monday that he will urge President-elect Donald Trump “to think long and hard” before making a decision on deporting young Americans who qualify for protection under his executive action.

{mosads}“I will urge the president-elect and the incoming administration to think long and hard before they are endangering the status of what for all practical purposes are American kids,” Obama told reporters before embarking on his final trip abroad as commander in chief.

Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program provides people living in the U.S. illegally who arrived as children work authorization and a temporary halt on deportation if they meet certain requirements.

“These are kids who were brought here by their parents. They did nothing wrong,” the president said.

“It is my strong belief that the majority of the American people would not want to see suddenly those kids have to start hiding again.”

Trump made immigration a focal point of his candidacy for president. Trump told “60 Minutes” Sunday that he planned to incarcerate or deport undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, which he estimated would be about 2 million or 3 million people.

He also said that his administration would make a decision on the remaining undocumented immigrants after securing the border.

“After the border is secure and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that they’re talking about, who are terrific people — they’re terrific people, but we are going to make a determination at that,” he said in the interview.