President Trump will direct his secretary of homeland security to examine ways the administration can suspend grants to so-called "sanctuary cities," or areas where law enforcement agents do not enforce immigration laws, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday.

"What the executive order does is, it directs the secretary to ... look at funding streams that are going to these cities ... and figure out how we can defund those streams," Spicer said of an executive action Trump was expected to sign later in the day.

Spicer dismissed suggestions that Trump would seek to deport children who were brought into the country illegally by their parents. Those individuals, known as "dreamers," are protected under an Obama administration executive order.

"His priority with respect to immigration is, first and foremost, making sure that people who are in the country who seek to do us harm" are removed, Spicer said.

The White House spokesman said Trump is a "family man" with a "big heart" whose first priority would not be deporting children.

Spicer hinted at an upcoming executive action that would use "existing funds and resources" at the Department of Homeland Security to pay for construction of the wall between the U.S. and Mexico before Mexico begins reimbursing American taxpayers.