On January 9, President Donald Trump sat down with a group of about two dozen members of Congress and told them in front of the nation that he would sign “whatever” bill they could come up with to protect nearly 700,000 Dreamers from deportation. Although Trump listed his priorities—securing funds for a border wall, limiting family migration, restructuring the diversity visa lottery in favor of a merit-based system, and protecting Dreamers—he recognized the fact that immigration is a particularly challenging topic in American politics.

“When this group comes back, hopefully with an agreement,” Trump declared in the January meeting, “I am signing it. I will be signing it. I’m not going to say, ‘Oh gee, I want this or I want that.’ I will be signing it.”