President Donald Trump is set to scrap a program that protected people who entered the United States illegally as children

The US president decided to delay enforcement of his decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program in order to give Congress time to devise legislation to replace it, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Sunday.

The Obama administration policy protects nearly 800,000 young men and women often called “Dreamers” from deportation and allows them to work legally.

The decision to give Congress half a year to come up with an alternative represents a compromise after Republicans and business leaders asked Trump to keep the program. They included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, who tweeted that 250 staff were “Dreamers” and “I stand with them”.

“Dreamers” are a fraction of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of them Hispanic. Trump as a candidate promised to deport all of them, but many Americans have rallied to support the young adults who have spent large parts of their lives in the United States.