White House chief of staff John Kelly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a closed-door meeting Wednesday that President Trump may be open to signing an immigration bill that protects undocumented youth and boosts border security, but excludes steps to restrict family-based immigration.
The meeting between White House chief of staff John Kelly and more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers came hours after congressional GOP leaders unveiled a stopgap spending measure that would fund the federal government through mid-February and renew the popular Children's Health Insurance Program.
Several Democrats immediately rejected the bill, reaffirming their opposition to any short-term spending legislation without a deal in place to codify protections for so-called Dreamers, the young illegal immigrants who are at risk of losing their temporary legal status when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program expires on March 5.
According to four individuals present for the meeting, Kelly assured the room Trump does not intend to let those protections lapse, and would be willing to back legislation that addresses two of the "four high-priority areas" – border security, chain migration, the visa lottery, and DACA – the White House had previously said would need to be addressed simultaneously before the president would consider a broader immigration reform bill.
"One member in the room said they felt like there are components where there is immediate bipartisan agreement, those being a DACA fix and border security," one House Democratic aide involved in the meeting told the Washington Examiner. "But that we're still in disagreement over other elements like the visa lottery system."
"And what was surprising, is he said, 'Well, we should just take out those things that we can't agree on and pass those things that we can agree on,'" the aide recalled Kelly saying.
"'If the group of No. 2s say that's the best they can come up with, that is something the president may sign,'" the aide added, quoting Kelly.
Rep. Henry Cueller, D-Texas, who has urged his Democratic colleagues to avoid shutting the government down over DACA, said Kelly's comments reminded him of something Trump had said during a bipartisan tax reform meeting at the White House last November.
"I remember when I came out of that meeting, the president had said, 'We need to take care of DACA. We need to do border security, but the wall we can do at a later time,'" Cueller recounted. "The White House later said, 'No, the wall has to be part of it.' But at one time, [Trump] was willing to deal with just two issues.'"
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., said the president's top aide "spoke favorably about DACA and said there are some security issues that need to be redone."
"It seemed to me that they agree that these are the two primary issues ... and there are other issues such as the diversity visa lottery, but to tag on additional stuff is not really a good thing," Espaillat told the Washington Examiner. "It will saddle the debate with stuff that will then prevent us from reaching a consensus."
Part of the reason Trump may endorse a bill that merely addresses DACA and the border is because his campaign-trail rhetoric on building the wall and ending chain migration was more severe than his current views on either issue.
At least four individuals present for Wednesday's meeting said Kelly told them the president's personal persuasions have "evolved" now that he's an officeholder and not a candidate.
"The tone was something to the effect that what was said during the campaign is not necessarily what's going to be done in government," said Espaillat.
"Gen. Kelly said a 30-foot wall from sea to shining sea is not something that's viable, and now that the president has been more informed, he understands that," Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., told the Washington Examiner.
Rather, attendees said Kelly discussed the possibility of funding new levee walls along parts of the Southwest border that need to be reinforced, in addition to other forms of tactical infrastructure and state-of-the-art surveillance.
"One of the members brought up the issue of the wall, and Kelly did say, 'We can talk about the levee wall,'" said Cuellar, who described the potential barrier as "part cement with a fence on top of it."
Members who described their overall discussion with Kelly as "constructive and engaging" were less confident Thursday morning, when Trump appeared to push back on his chief of staff in a series of tweets about the southwest border wall.
"The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it," the president tweeted before sunrise. "Parts will be, of necessity, see through and it was never intended to be built in areas where there is natural protection such as mountains, wastelands or tough rivers or water."
Espaillat said Trump's public comments sabotaged any progress he and other Democrats thought they had made with the White House.
"We thought yesterday was a step in the right direction, but then, the president blew it up," he complained. "This is the kind of stuff we have to deal with."
"My first inkling was to be disappointed," said Correa. "And then, as I thought more about it, it's kind of the MO here. I think that's just a form the president uses to negotiate, and I think this is just his negotiating style."
"We're not used to negotiating in this manner," he admitted. "So, we just have to figure it out."
