President Donald Trump has been sympathetic toward so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Trump warns lawmakers against allowing for chain migration

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he will not sign any immigration bill that would set the stage for chain immigration, in which the extended family of legal immigrants are given a smooth path into the country.

“CHAIN MIGRATION cannot be allowed to be part of any legislation on Immigration!” Trump tweeted.


Trump has given Congress until March to seek a legislative solution to former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and reform the nation’s immigration system.

The president has been sympathetic toward so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children. And Democrats have urged Trump to support the DREAM Act, legislation that would provide a path to permanent legal status for Dreamers.

Conservative critics have accused Trump of supporting “amnesty” by softening his hardline immigration stance, and in recent days conservative organizations have warned against chain migration. Some Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, have pushed aggressively to move more toward a merit-based immigration system.

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The Federation for American Immigration Reform told Trump that if the DREAM Act replaces DACA, “that will be 3 million plus.”

“After chain migration it would be the biggest amnesty in modern history,” FAIR tweeted.

The conservative National Review wrote Thursday that amnesty “serves as a magnet for new illegal immigrants, and its recipients could become the next link in chain migration if granted legal status or especially citizenship.”

Sen. John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the chamber, said on Thursday that chain migration “is a very big concern” that needs to be discussed, according to The Washington Examiner.