President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Congress to act on a program shielding 800,000 immigrants from deportation, hours before his administration was set to announce an end to the Obama-era policy.
In a tweet, the president said Congress needs to "get ready to do your job" on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The policy protects young people who immigrated to the United States illegally as children.
Trump: Congress, get ready to do your job - DACA!
Trump did not signal specifically what action he wants Congress to take.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly set to announce on Tuesday that the administration will rescind DACA but delay the action for six months to give Congress time to take legislative action.
Scrapping DACA, which started in 2012 under President Barack Obama, gives the immigrants a two-year period of protection from deportation and allows them to work in the United States.
Some top Republicans, like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have urged the president not to end DACA and said they will seek a legislative solution for those protected under it. However, it remains to be seen whether a bill shielding the so-called dreamers can pass the GOP-held Congress.
As a candidate, Trump pledged to end DACA immediately. But he later said he wanted to treat the immigrants shielded under the program with "heart."
"We love the dreamers," Trump said on Friday.
Top business leaders have spoken out against Trump ending the program. Some studies have suggested that scrapping DACA could sap from U.S. GDP because it could take hundreds of thousands of people out of the American workforce over time.