Trump has signed off on Kushner immigration plan

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has signed off on a new immigration plan being spearheaded by senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner appearing to receive a positive reception from Republican senators briefed on it Tuesday.

A senior administration official told reporters after the meeting the president had approved the effort to overhaul America's immigration system and increase border security last week and it should now be considered "the President Trump plan."

Kushner is working to finalize a plan with two major components: Border security measures to include efforts to secure ports of entry and a package of immigration proposals to create a more "merit-based" system giving preference to those with job skills rather than relatives of immigrants already in the country. Under the plan, the same number of immigrants would be permitted to enter the country, but the composition would change.

The White House is also working with Sen. Lindsey Graham on additional legislation to address the nation's asylum system in an effort to stem the flow of migrants across the border, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to outline the plan.

Several GOP senators who attended complimented the effort, which the White House deemed "productive." Democrats were not in attendance.

"The president and senators discussed a potential plan that would secure the border, protect and raise wages for the American worker, and move toward a merit-based immigration system," White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a written readout of the meeting.

Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona complimented Kushner and the White House.

"They have done substantial work," she told Fox News in an interview at the White House after the meeting.

After he returned to the Capitol, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas described a "very good productive conversation. ... I heard large areas of agreement from everyone in the room." Cotton said he still needs to see the details but things are "moving in the right direction."

And Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota called it a "good starting point" perhaps appealing to Democrats in the right situation.

"I think the environment right now with the booming economy, workforce demands, a crisis at the border that's no longer deemed manufactured presents an opportunity for discussion," he said.

Any immigration plan will be an uphill challenge on Capitol Hill where lawmakers have struggled for decades to pass comprehensive immigration legislation. Conservative Republicans are likely to oppose a plan not cutting rates of legal immigration, while Democrats have made clear they will not accept changes without new protections of "Dreamer" immigrants brought to the country as children and are here illegally. Some Republicans, especially those from election swing states, would like to see protections for Dreamers as well.

Some have also reacted skeptically to Kushner's involvement, given he has no previous background on the contentious subject. Kushner has nonetheless spent months meeting with various Republican groups, hoping to put together a proposal he believes can unite party members, following the playbook he used to help pass bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation last year.

Grassley, who favors stricter immigration enforcement, kept expectations in check before the meeting.

"Well I think anything I'm looking for they probably won't have any chance of getting passed," he told reporters.

Kushner said during an interview at the TIME 100 Summit two weeks ago he would present a revised version to Trump "probably at the end of this week, next week" and the president would then "make some changes, likely, and then he'll decide what he wants to do with it when he wants to do with it."

"My hope is that we can really do something that unifies people around what we're for on immigration," he said.