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Rahm Asks Trump To Drop Plans To Deport 'Dreamers' During Meeting in NYC

By Heather Cherone | December 7, 2016 7:48am

President-elect Donald Trump and Mayor Rahm Emanuel met Wednesday.View Full Caption

flickr/Gage Skidmore; DNAinfo/Heather Cherone

CHICAGO — Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked President-elect Donald Trump to drop his plans to deport young undocumented immigrants during a meeting Wednesday morning at Trump Tower in New York City, the mayor's office announced.

Emanuel, who was in New York for a series of meetings, entered Trump Tower just after 9 a.m. central time to meet with the president-elect.

The mayor gave Trump a letter signed by dozens of mayors urging the president-elect to continue the program started by President Barack Obama that gave legal status to immigrants who came to America as children known as "dreamers."

The program should be continued until Congress modernizes the immigration system and provides a more permanent form of relief for those immigrants, according to the letter.

What do you hope Emanuel will talk about with Trump?

The President-elect asked for a meeting with Emanuel, "as he has done with others who have significant experience in the White House and several other big city mayors," Collins said in a statement.

During a recent phone call, Emanuel, who served as President Barack Obama's first chief of staff and as an aide to President Bill Clinton, offered the president-elect insights from his time in the White House, sources said.

Earlier this week, Emanuel declined to discuss his conversation with Trump in detail, saying only that they talked about a range of issues and he was "honest, upfront."

During the phone call, the mayor told Trump that Chicago would remain a sanctuary city despite the president-elect's promise to withhold federal funds from municipalities that protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, sources said.

Trump made immigration a central issue of the presidential campaign. He has vowed to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and to ban Muslims from entering the country.

Emanuel — although he stayed on the sidelines for much of the presidential election — criticized Trump as unfit to lead America during the campaign.

Since Trump's election, Emanuel has made a series of announcements designed to reassure immigrants in Chicago that he will take steps to protect them from a Trump administration.

A new 23-member task force announced Tuesday with U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, will “collaborate on mental health, legal services, diversity training for employers and education” to make certain the city is delivering “comprehensive services to immigrants, refugees and other disenfranchised communities,” officials said.

The "Chicago Is With You" task force will develop a website that will serve as a source of information for immigrants and connect undocumented immigrants with those who have volunteered to help them.

Emanuel has said he was not worried about Trump taking revenge on Chicago officials, who voted to remove a street sign honoring him outside Trump Tower and blasted him as a racist who should not be allowed to occupy the White House.

During the campaign, Trump held up Chicago as the embodiment of all that is wrong with urban America — a "war-torn country" rife with voter fraud and consumed with violence and poverty.

Trump said he could put an end to the gun and gang violence that has wounded more than 4,000 and killed 700 people in Chicago "in one week" if only the police were allowed to get "tougher."