Trump on DREAMers: We'll 'work something out'

Despite his hardline stance on immigration during the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump says he plans “to work something out” for people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children but now have work permits because of President Obama’s executive order.

In his Time “Person of the Year” interview released Wednesday, Trump didn't back down from his promise to end Obama's executive orders on immigration, but he did offer an opening for people who qualified for Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

“We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud,” Trump said. “They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

In 2012, Obama issued an executive order that granted work permits to millions of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

Trump made immigration a cornerstone of his campaign. He has promised to build a wall along the Southern border — which he says Mexico will pay for — and called for mass deportations.

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On Wednesday Trump met with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, at Trump Tower. Following the meeting Emanuel tweeted that he "hand-delivered a letter from US mayors to the President-Elect urging him to continue the DACA program."

Emanuel, who was formerly a chief of staff under Obama, told reporters at Trump Tower that the letter was signed by 14 mayors.

He said the letter said that "That they were working hard towards the American dream, and that all of us fundamentally believe that these are students, these are also people who want to join the armed forces, they gave their name, their address, their phone number, where they are, they're trying to achieve the American Dream, it's no fault of their own their parents came here."

Emanuel said it was "a very good meeting with both the President elect, his incoming chief of staff, and his incoming senior advisor. I was clear about where I stood and  other mayors stood on immigrants, that we welcome them because they are...striving for the American Dream."

Later Wednesday Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin tweeted his praise over Trump's comments.

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