President Trump will meet with a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday amid new worries that lawmakers are not close to a deal to extend protections for undocumented youth and improve immigration enforcement and border security.
The meeting comes days after congressional Republicans and White House officials huddled at Camp David to settle on a legislative agenda for 2018, which they hoped might include a bipartisan immigration bill that addresses beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, funds a border wall and moves to end programs that have long encouraged chain migration and illegal border crossings.
“President Trump looks forward to meeting with bipartisan members of the House and Senate today to discuss the next steps toward achieving responsible immigration reform,” White House spokesman Lindsay Walters said in a statement ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.
“The Trump administration’s immigration priorities are clear: securing the border with a wall, closing dangerous enforcement loopholes; eliminating the visa lottery program and ending chain migration,” she added.
One of those priorities – the president’s adamant support for a physical wall along the Southwest border – has threatened to jeopardize discussions between lawmakers, as Democrats have insisted they will oppose any bill that includes funding for a physical barrier.
“There have been some discussions but our position is clear and their position is somewhat clear,” a White House official told Reuters this week, claiming Trump’s strategy is to “drill down and see if there is some room for negotiations.”
Several of the lawmakers attending Tuesday’s meeting have introduced legislation that aims to tackle Trump’s priorities. And in some cases, the president has already endorsed their proposals. Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, who earned Trump’s praise for devising a bill that would replace family preference criteria in the current U.S. legal immigration system with a merit-based approach, will both be present.
At least two Democratic senators from so-called “sanctuary” states, where cooperation between federal immigration officials and local law enforcement is limited, are also slated to attend the White House meeting: Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, and Michael Bennet of Colorado.
In total, 23 senators are expected to attend: 13 Republicans, and 10 Democrats.
They will be joined by Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly, who was steeped in immigration policy during his brief tenure as Homeland Security secretary, his successor Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, and legislative affairs director Marc Short.
Nielsen appeared to tell congressional Republicans over the weekend that Trump’s demand for a border wall should be taken seriously but perhaps not literally, despite the administration’s request last Friday for $18 billion over 10 years for construction of a physical barrier.
“Secretary Nielsen, with the meeting we had this weekend at Camp David, had what she referred to as a system,” John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told the Washington Examiner on Monday. “In other words, you can’t just look at one component of border security. You’ve got to look at it as a system, a combination of technology and infrastructure and then personnel. And then what that combination is will vary depending on where you are along the border.”
Cornyn admitted, however, that any immigration deal easily could fall apart based on how willing Trump is to tether himself to a wall and how determined Democrats are to oppose that demand in a bill that deals with so-called Dreamers.
“We’ll find out what the president will accept. That really is the test,” he said.
Kimberly Leonard contributed
