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President-elect Trump has promised to target many people for deportation as soon as he takes office. The once and future president has also made it clear he's sensitive to negative media attention about this. And he has signaled a possible shift toward one group of people who do not have legal status, people brought to the United States as children, the so-called DREAMers, those covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals - or DACA. They've been protected since 2012. Trump tried to end DACA during his first term. This week, he said he wants to find a way to protect those same immigrants. NPR's Adrian Florido reports.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Juan Lopez (ph) was 4 when his parents brought him illegally to the U.S. He got DACA protection 11 years ago when he was in high school. He also got a work permit, and he began to imagine a real future for himself.
JUAN LOPEZ: Life turned around for me. I started caring about school again. I went from a 2.2 GPA sophomore year to a 3.4 by the time I got to senior year.
FLORIDO: He enrolled in community college in central North Carolina, where he lives. He studied massage therapy and now works in that field. He's always known DACA could end. It's been caught up in federal court challenges for years. But Lopez, who's 28, has never been so afraid he'll be deported as he has been in the last month.
LOPEZ: I was joking about it at work. I was like, guys, I'm getting deported. (Laughter) Ever since Trump won, I was like, hey, guys, I'm getting deported.
FLORIDO: In truth, he says he's haunted by the uncertainty. Then over the weekend, Lopez heard NBC News' Kristen Welker ask Trump on "Meet The Press" about immigrants like him, often called DREAMers.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")
DONALD TRUMP: In many cases, they become successful. They have great jobs. In some cases, they have small businesses, some cases they might have large businesses. And we're going to have to do something with them. And...
KRISTEN WELKER: You want them to be able to stay. That's what you're saying?
TRUMP: I do.
WELKER: OK.
TRUMP: I want to be able to work something out.
FLORIDO: Trump also said he's willing to work with Democrats on this. His remarks made Lopez feel better, but only a little.
LOPEZ: I'm not getting my hopes up. You know what I mean? People promise things, people talk about solutions, but nothing ever really happens.
FLORIDO: He's been researching countries he can move to with his Mexican passport just in case. Ahilan Arulanantham codirects the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA. He says people in Lopez's situation are right to be skeptical of Trump's remarks.
AHILAN ARULANANTHAM: It's very hard to know what to make of them because Trump did say similar things sympathetic to DREAMers early in his administration last time, and then obviously his administration went to war against DACA later.
FLORIDO: Trump's attempt to end DACA in 2017 was blocked by the Supreme Court. But several Republican-led states are still trying to end the program in federal court, and Trump has chosen immigration hard-liners as his top advisers. For the so-called DREAMers, it's been a constant cycle of anxiety and fear punctuated by glimmers of hope that a solution might be within reach. As a lawyer, Arulanantham has seen that cycle wear people down.
ARULANANTHAM: That feeling of living in a permanent state of limbo, it definitely takes its toll over time. And the students, at least some of them in conversations I've had, like, sort of wonder whether it's just a permanent condition, you know?
FLORIDO: When Reyna Montoya heard what Trump said, it didn't change anything for her. She runs Aliento, an Arizona nonprofit that helps young undocumented immigrants. Right now, she's urging them to make a plan.
REYNA MONTOYA: I always tell our young people, worse comes to worst, it's that plan that you plan for it, and you wish you never have to use.
FLORIDO: Montoya herself is a DACA recipient. She's preparing to appoint a power of attorney who can handle her mortgage and other affairs if she gets detained or deported. She doesn't know what the future holds, she says, but she is taking it seriously.
Adrian Florido, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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