Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson (left) and White House adviser Ivanka Trump speak onstage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit on Oct. 9 in Washington. | Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Fortune Ivanka Trump: 'Dreamers' deserve 'long-term fix'

Ivanka Trump on Monday night publicly waded into the immigration debate for the first time, calling the plight of Dreamers a “very complicated issue that needs a long-term congressional fix.”

Addressing the Obama-era executive action that protected from deportation about 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children — a group referred to as "Dreamers" — Ivanka Trump, a White House adviser, expressed sympathy, calling them “innocent people” who deserve a “long-term fix.”


The comments, delivered at a dinner panel where Ivanka Trump was expected to speak about workforce development, could put the first daughter at odds with White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, the author of a wish list of hard-line immigration demands released by the White House just 24 hours earlier.

The White House’s new demands for any deal to protect Dreamers included the construction of a wall along the Mexican border and the hiring of 10,000 more immigration agents, among other measures aimed to crack down on illegal immigration. The wall demand alone is a deal breaker for the Democrats who said they struck a deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program with President Donald Trump last month.

Ivanka Trump was speaking on a panel at the 2017 “Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit” at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C., when she was asked to weigh in on the status of the Dreamers. The audience, which included Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, was treated to a surprise a cappella performance by the singer Jewel, as entrees were served.

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The first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, are often credited with whispering support for more progressive policies into the president’s ear, behind closed doors. So far, they have few political victories to point to, as examples of their influence with the president when it comes to policy. But Ivanka Trump’s comments on Monday night marked a rare moment when she has expressed her opinion on a contentious political issue in public. Still, she made it clear she was not publicly disagreeing with her father.

“I am of the opinion — and the president has stated — that we have to figure out a good solution that protects these innocent people, many of whom were brought to the country as children, ” she said. “There has to be a long-term fix; it can’t be bandaged over on a presidential level by another executive order.”

She added: “This is a very complicated issue that needs a long-term congressional fix.”

Ivanka Trump and Kushner have been targeted by activists hoping they would help save DACA. Protesters staged a vigil last month outside their mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington, D.C., asking them to save the program, after Trump said he would end it with a six-month delay.

