Updated

After months of delays, President Donald Trump is expected to decide soon on the fate of so-called "Dreamers" who were brought into the country illegally as children.

The deliberations come as Trump faces a looming deadline set by a group of Republican state lawmakers hoping to force his hand.

Advocates on both sides of the issue are bracing for the possibility Trump might halt the issuance of new work permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

It's a move that would effectively phase out an Obama-era effort that gave hundreds of thousands of young people a reprieve from deportation — unless Congress can agree on a plan that would give them new protections.