By Tal Kopan
Key Republican senators will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday as negotiations continue to reach a compromise on border security issues and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Trump is set to host the more conservative members of his party negotiating with Democrats in the Senate over DACA, an Obama administration policy that protected young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation.
Since Trump opted to terminate DACA in September, Democrats and many Republicans have pushed to make the program, which benefits young immigrants who in most cases know no other country, a permanent legislative policy — but Trump and most Republicans have also demanded border security and increased immigration enforcement as part of a deal.
On Thursday, Trump will host Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a border hawk; Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, who is a staunch supporter of tough immigration enforcement policies; South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has co-sponsored a bill that would protect DACA eligible immigrants with Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin; Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who has sponsored a bill that would overhaul and cut legal immigration; and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, who have sought a compromise conservatives and Democrats could live with.
Not on the list were Republican Sens. Jeff Flake, of Arizona, and Cory Gardner, of Colorado, who have been meeting nearly every day the Senate is in session with Graham, Durbin, Tillis and Lankford to reach a compromise.
No Democratic senators are expected to attend the meeting.
On Wednesday evening, Tillis said negotiations had begun to focus on what Trump’s priorities were.
“I think what we’ve tried to focus on is getting the feedback from the administration on what the core requirements are around border security and interior enforcement,” Tillis said when asked by CNN what was accomplished over the holiday break. “We had great discussions before the holiday on trying to bridge some of the gaps between the Dream Act and the Succeed Act (which would make DACA permanent), but we felt like we reached a point to where we we had to have that broader discussion.”
The White House and Flake and Gardner’s offices did not immediately respond to an inquiry about whether they were invited.
Democrats are pushing for DACA to be resolved before they will for any government spending package. Funding runs out January 19, and a long-term budget deal will require Democratic votes to pass.
Trump set a March 5 target date for the two-year DACA permits to begin expiring, but more than 20,000 recipients will lose their protections before then because they either opted to or could not renew in a brief window allotted in September.
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