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 / Updated By Pete Williams, Julia Ainsley and Ali Vitali 
 
 WASHINGTON — The White House said Friday that President Donald Trump would announce his decision Tuesday on an Obama-era policy that allows young people who came here illegally as children to remain in the United States. 
 
 "[Trump] loves people and he wants to make sure that this decision is done correctly," Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during Friday's afternoon briefing. 
 
 The announcement is likely to affect 787,000 so-called "dreamers" who signed up for the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. The program was an acknowledgement from the government that dreamers wouldn't be deported, and they were authorized to seek work permits and attend college. 
 
 Asked what aspects of the DACA issue the president is still weighing, Sanders said he's giving "this very important issue" the time, effort, and attention that it deserves — working "through every bit" of the immigration issue. 
 
 "It's not a decision the president takes lightly," she said. 
 
 The president initially said his announcement would be on Friday or over the weekend; he later said it would be during the weekend or possibly on Monday, which is Labor Day. 
 
 "We love dreamers; we love everybody...the dreamers are terrific,'' Trump told reporters when asked about the program at the White House on Friday. 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., urged the president on Friday not to cancel the program. Asked during an interview with WCLO Radio in Wisconsin if Trump should be looking at "pulling back" on DACA, Ryan said, "I actually don't think he should do that, and I believe this is something Congress has to fix." 
 
 Technology companies expressed their support for the program. Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, said the U.S. cannot afford to lose "the tremendous talent of these individuals." 
 
 Other Republicans have more strongly supported DACA. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida said on Twitter, "@POTUS must uphold pledge 2 treat #DREAMers with "great heart" + give these young folks certainty 2 stay in US, the only country they know." 
 
 Officials said some aides in the White House were worried about canceling the program as residents of Texas and Louisiana were struggling with unprecedented flooding caused by the hurricane. The National Immigration Law Center estimates that 144,000 DACA participants live in those two states. 
 
 Advocates for immigration say 97 percent of DACA participants are working or in school. 
 
 Begun by President Barack Obama in 2012, the program allows eligible young people to seek DACA protection for renewable two-year periods. Applicants can file when they turn 15, and immigration experts say the program could end up covering 1.3 million young people if it were allowed to continue. Requests for renewals are now being filed at the rate of about 8,000 a week. 
 
 If the program is ended by simply blocking any further applications, 1,100 young people a day would lose their work permits and would no longer be assured they could remain in the U.S., though they would not face the prospect of immediate deportation. 
 
 Republican officials from 10 states threatened to sue the administration over the program if it's not ended by Sept. 5, putting pressure on the White House to make a decision. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the group said the government should stop accepting DACA renewal applications, allowing those now in effect to continue until their two-year period expires. 
 
 During the campaign, Trump said DACA protected people here illegally, granting them a form of amnesty, and allowing them to compete with American citizens for jobs. 
 
 But the program has proven to be a popular one. A recent NBC News-Survey Monkey poll found 64 percent of respondents supported it, compared with 30 percent who opposed it. 
 
 Despite tough rhetoric on immigration during the campaign, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity in August 2016 that the U.S. had to "work with" those undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for many years and contributed to society. 
 
 "No citizenship," Trump said at the time, suggesting a requirement for payment of any back taxes. "There's no amnesty, but we work with them." ||||| President Donald Trump has also pledged to “deal with DACA with heart.” | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Republicans crank up pressure on Trump to not scrap DACA The White House says an announcement on Trump's decision will be made on Tuesday. 
 
 President Donald Trump is under mounting pressure from members of his own party not to end an Obama-era program that grants work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children — a group often referred to as Dreamers. 
 
 As an unofficial Tuesday deadline approaches, Trump and his staff have received a series of calls from GOP officials warning that any effort to undo the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program could be politically damaging. And there’s an effort to encourage Republican lawmakers to publicly raise concerns about how killing the program could affect the nearly 800,000 young people registered under the program, according to sources familiar with the internal debate. 
 
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 Trump told reporters mid-day Friday that his decision on DACA would come soon. “Sometime today or over the weekend, we’ll have a decision,” Trump said. “We’ll issue it sometime over the weekend. Maybe this afternoon.” He then said his announcement at the "latest will be Monday." 
 
 Asked whether Dreamers should be worried, Trump said, “We love the Dreamers. We love everybody.” 
 
 White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders clarified Friday afternoon that Trump and his aides would be working throughout the weekend on the issue. She said that an announcement would be made on Tuesday, contradicting Trump's earlier statements. 
 
 "The president's priorities on immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits our economy and American workers," Sanders said. "The president's been very clear, he loves people, and he wants to make sure that this decision is done correctly, and so that's what he's doing now is finalizing that part." 
 
 She added, "I think the decision itself is weighing on him, certainly." 
 
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 The DACA program, which was put in place by former President Barack Obama in 2012, allows undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors to apply for two-year work permits and shields them from deportation. 
 
 While Trump vowed to kill the program during the presidential campaign, he has publicly wavered in recent months, expressing sympathy for those who could be uprooted if DACA is eliminated. 
 
 “The DACA situation is a very difficult thing for me, as I love these kids, I love kids,” Trump said in February. “I have kids and grandkids, and I find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do and, you know, the law is rough.” 
 
 He has also pledged to “deal with DACA with heart.” 
 
 Top White House aides have been debating the future of DACA behind the scenes for months, and the fight reached a fever pitch this week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and policy aide Stephen Miller are the most vocal advocates of killing the program, and they’ve both made the case that it will be difficult to defend in court. That legal argument has resonated with the Trump, sources familiar with the debate said, with the president positing it’s better to phase out the program now than to keep it and lose in court. 
 
 But multiple people told POLITICO early Friday that Trump had not yet made a final decision, even though he is leaning toward phasing out the program and allowing existing Dreamers to finish out their existing work permits. 
 
 Though Trump is largely convinced that he should end the program, he continues to raise concerns privately about the possible political blowback, according to a person familiar with the discussion. But he also sees the decision as a way to show his conservative critics that he isn’t beholden to the so-called “New York Democrats in the White House," the person said. 
 
 Texas and nine other states have threatened to sue the Trump administration over DACA if the president doesn’t rescind the measure by Tuesday. While many in the Trump administration see Tuesday as an unofficial deadline to act — and while Trump himself has pledged to announce a decision by this weekend — the president could opt to further delay a decision. 
 
 However, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced Friday that his state would not challenge DACA in court, lowering the total number of states preparing to sue over the program to nine. 
 
 "At this time, our Office has decided not to challenge DACA in the litigation, because we believe there is a better approach," Slatery wrote in a letter to the state's senators, calling on them to take legislative action. 
 
 Meanwhile, powerful lawmakers on Friday publicly called on Trump to maintain the program until Congress can address the program in a broader way. 
 
 “I don’t think he should do that. I believe that this is something Congress has to fix,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Janesville, Wisconsin’s WCLO radio station. 
 
 Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the most senior Republican in the Senate who helped introduce the original DREAM Act in 2001, called Trump on Thursday to urge the president not to rescind DACA, following numerous leaks to the press that Trump was preparing to do so, a Hatch aide said. 
 
 “Congress needs to take immediate action to protect #DACA kids,” Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake tweeted. 
 
 Other lawmakers are also applying pressure on Trump. Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican, said Thursday he’ll try to force a vote on a bill that would extend protections for the Dreamers. Under the DREAM Act, young undocumented immigrants would have a path to citizenship if they attend college or serve in the military for at least two years. 
 
 Ryan said Friday that Obama did not have the legislative authority to adopt the policy. “You can’t as an executive write law out of thin air, and so that’s very, very clear and we’ve made that very clear,” he said. 
 
 “Having said all that, there are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home,” the speaker said. “And so, I really do believe there needs to be a legislative solution, that’s one that we’re working on.” 
 
 Ryan added that Congress wants to give people “peace of mind” on the issue. 
 
 “I’ve had plenty of conversations with the White House about this issue,” the House speaker said. “And I think the president as well has mentioned that he wants to have a humane solution to this problem. I think that’s something that we in Congress are working on and need to deliver on.” 
 
 Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
– With President Trump promising a decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Friday afternoon or sometime this weekend, a number of powerful Republican lawmakers—including House Speaker Paul Ryan—encouraged him not to end it. DACA—enacted by President Obama in 2012—allows immigrants brought to the US illegally as children to stay in the country without fear of deportation using two-year work permits. Ryan says the program was unconstitutional when Obama created it with an executive order, but Trump should still keep it in place while letting Congress find a solution, reports the Washington Post. "These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don’t know another home," Ryan says. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch also asked Trump to let Congress find “a workable, permanent solution for individuals who entered the country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here.” And Politico reports Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said "Congress needs to take immediate action to protect DACA kids." Republican lawmakers were joined by CEOs in asking the president to keep the program. When asked Friday if so-called "Dreamers" had anything to fear, Trump said: "We love Dreamers; we love everybody ... The Dreamers are terrific." Trump had promised to end DACA during the campaign. Immigration advocates say 97% of the 787,000 Dreamers in the US are either working or in school, according to NBC News.