Trump’s comments bring hope for Dreamers

President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to work out a plan for Dreamers to stay in America.

While talking to NBC’s Kristen Welker, Donald Trump said this about Dreamers: “We’re gonna have to do something with them… I want to be able to work something out, and it should have been able to be worked out over the last three or four years, and it never got worked out.”

He also spoke about how he wants to work with Republicans and Democrats to figure something out for Dreamers.

We asked if this means that there is hope for Dreamers.

We spoke with a number of immigrants who told us the president’s words gave them hope, even if they’re not quite sure what it could mean yet. They shared their own experiences with family members, not knowing what to do next.

In order to become a U.S. citizen, there’s one thing you need: a green card.

“That is a requirement for naturalization to become a U.S. citizen. They have to have a green card for either three years while married to a U.S. citizen or five years or more not married to a U.S. citizen,” said James Culp from the Learning Empowered Citizenship Project.

This is what makes the path to citizenship for Dreamers unclear.

“At this point, they’re not accepting any new applications for DACA, though some have been grandfathered in,” Culp said.

Leaving millions of undocumented immigrants who arrived as kids unsure of their next step.

“Obviously, employers can sponsor for a green card, and then if you come with a refugee status or asylum, you can use that as a way of obtaining a green card. There are certain forgiveness you can get,” Culp said.

James Culp works at the Learning Empowered Citizenship Project, an education-based nonprofit that helps immigrants on their path to citizenship.

“I’ve had students that have lawful permanent residency, but they have a spouse or a family member who’s undocumented, or someone who has DACA that they were in early on and got grandfathered in, or those that just missed it,” Culp said.

And with President-elect Donald Trump set to return to the White House, the question now is: Is there hope for Dreamers?

Here’s what he had to say in an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker on Sunday.

“We have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people. Now, they don’t even speak the language of their country, and yes, we’re going to do something about that. I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan,” Trump said.

But Culp doesn’t think it’ll be easy.

“It does give me hope in that I do believe that President Trump wants to solve the issue, but again, I think that’s him coming, again, from a corporate world of, ‘OK, here’s a problem. Let’s solve it. Let’s get it done,'” he said.

WINK News reporter Amy Galo spoke with political scientist Aubrey Jewett, who says he doesn’t have a crystal ball, but given the long history of this topic, he shared his ideas on how this could all play out.

Since the end of DACA, many Dreamers have been left in limbo.

Aubrey Jewett, University of Central Florida political science professor, said, “First by Obama, then rescinded by Trump, then brought back by Biden. Then a federal judge, though, said that it was illegal and they couldn’t do it that way.”

But now, it seems Trump is ready for change.

“I will work with the democrats on a plan and if we can come up with a plan, but the democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the dreamers,” said Jewett.

While the topic of Dreamers usually elicits some bipartisanship, Jewett said, “The Dreamers, in particular, are a very sympathetic group; Democrats and many Republicans generally agree in principle that they shouldn’t be forced to leave.”

Every time a bill about the Dreamers has been presented before, “The problem has been, usually, any one particular thing in immigration is not brought up on its own. Instead, both sides say that they want to have it as part of a big immigration reform package bill. And thus, even though both republicans and democrats, on average, agree that maybe the dreamers should have an opportunity to stay, it often gets tied up with other things.”

And given the history of the topic of dreamers, “It doesn’t seem likely that President Trump is going to try to use an executive order to help these DACA recipients instead, or the Dreamers instead. I suspect, as he said, it would take a law passed by Congress,” said Jewett.

This is why Jewett thinks a smaller bill might do the trick.

“If the issue of the Dreamers situation can come up in a stand-alone bill, meaning that, okay, they’re just trying to deal with the Dreamers. I think they could get pretty good bipartisan cooperation,” he explained.

But that is easier said than done, especially in today’s political climate. Jewett told us he isn’t too optimistic Democrats and Republicans will be able to come to an agreement on a bill.

Of course, we’ll have to wait and see.