Trump will assess the fate of dreamers as part of a broader immigration deal

"What I take away is that if the court rules in favor of the president, we will not allow these people to see their lives turned upside down, but we will try to put in place a package that protects the population of DACA, "said Graham. said adding the package will also address "how the system is so broken."

Trump has tried for years to use protections for the Dreamers to try to reach an immigration deal with the Democrats in exchange for his tighter immigration priorities, but all of his attempts have failed .

Several other Republicans attended the meeting, including the Sens. Mike Lee from Utah, Ted Cruz from Texas, Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, Tom Cotton from Arkansas, Martha McSally from Arizona, Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri and David Perdue from Georgia.

Most senators are seen as extremists who have opposed such efforts in the past. Perdue pushed the White House to increase the number of temporary foreign workers in the United States.

Graham, who has long lobbied for a massive rewrite of national immigration laws, presented Trump with a series of proposals, including those that would protect all immigrants eligible for DACA more than the more than 700,000 who had been enrolled. in the program. But Trump was more in tune with Hawley, Cruz, and Cotton, who made him wait until the Supreme Court ruled, probably in June, five months before election day, when the 39; appetite for a bipartisan plan might not be particularly strong.

The White House has been in quiet talks with immigration lawmakers for months, even as Trump continues to campaign to reduce the number of immigrants to the United States illegally.

Jared Kushner, Trumps' senior advisor and son-in-law, pushed a Invoice of 600 pages this would grant permanent status to more skilled and educated immigrants, while reducing the number of immigrants entering the United States because of family ties. Trump unveiled the outlines of this proposal in May, but has not gained much support for the offer.

In recent months, the administration has also talks with senators about a law that would create new categories of visas for temporary workers or extend the stays granted to these workers. The Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that it would allow an additional 35,000 seasonal workers to enter the country through the H-2B visa program.

Kushner and Stephen Miller, senior policy advisor, who generally play an outsized role in immigration but were not heavily involved in Kushner's openings at Capitol Hill, also attended the meeting.

In the 2016 election, Trump promised to end the DACA program. In 2017, he tried to keep his promise, but two federal courts ordered him to keep it until the Supreme Court intervened, which is expected to happen this summer.

Trump tried to reach an ambitious deal with Democrats that would have protected dreamers in return for his immigration priorities, like money for a south border wall. But that effort quickly died in Congress amidst the backlash of immigration hawks, who criticized it for protecting immigrants to the United States illegally.

Supporters of immigrants say the administration is disingenuous in its efforts to provide permanent legal status to dreamers.

President Trump should grant permanent permission to all dreamers to work and live in the United States, "said Kerri Talbot, director of federal advocacy for the Immigration Center." The Democrats will not leave the dreamers taken hostage by this administration and will yield to ridiculous demands. . "

Groups seeking to reduce global migration fear that any deal Trump has made to protect dreamers would go against his own promise to reduce global immigration.

In response to a possible Supreme Court ruling on DACA, we expect Republican lawmakers to give President Trump political advice consistent with what elected him in 2016, said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which wishes to reduce the number of immigrants to the country. A decision to end DACA is not an emergency that must be exploited to advance Senator Grahams' amnesty program.

The White House acknowledged the meeting but did not respond further.