Trump open to letting Dreamers 'morph into' citizens in future

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday he's open to an immigration plan providing a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally.

"We're going to morph into it," Trump told reporters. "It's going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years."

His pronouncement came as the White House announced it would be unveiling a legislative framework on immigration next week the president hopes can pass both the House and the Senate.

Trump's said he'll propose $25 billion for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and $5 billion for other security measures.

Trump told reporters he had a message for the so-called Dreamers, those brought to the country illegally as children: "Tell 'em not to be concerned, OK? Tell 'em not to worry. We're going to solve the problem."

Trump was talking about the young immigrants who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump announced he was ending DACA last year, but he has given Congress until March to come up with a legislative fix.

Trump said he was confident a deal can be reached on the issue. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the framework to be unveiled Monday "represents a compromise that members of both parties can support."

The White House appeared to be trying to take control of the process amid criticism the president had taken too much of a back seat during recent negotiations and had sent mixed signals that repeatedly upended near-deals.

Senators from both parties were making a fresh search for their own compromise immigration legislation, but leaders conceded the effort wouldn't be easy and were already casting blame should it falter.

Around three dozen senators from both parties met privately Wednesday, and two top lawmakers said they'd try crafting a compromise bill based on colleagues' suggestions. The goal is to produce consensus legislation to be the starting point for Senate debate on immigration, which is expected to begin Feb. 8, said Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., their parties' No. 2 leaders.

"We're the Senate. We have our own responsibility under the Constitution, and we decided in this room to move forward," Durbin said afterward. "If the president has some ideas he'd like to share, of course we'll take a look at them."

When asked if he knew what would be in the White House proposal, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he didn't know and added, "But they're not writing the bill."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed not to "let those who are anti-immigrant, who call giving the Dreamers hope 'amnesty,' block us. Because then we will fail, and it will be on the other side of the aisle that made that happen."

Sanders said the White House framework is based on dozens of conversations Trump and his staff have had with members of both parties and "it addresses all of the different things that we've heard from all of the various stakeholders" during the past several months.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said Trump called him Wednesday morning and wants to provide "dependability for these kids," but still expects a deal to include money for border security and his promised southern wall, to limit immigrants' ability to sponsor family members and to end a visa lottery aimed at diversity.

Schumer said Tuesday he'd pulled back an offer of $25 billion for Trump's border wall. An aide said Schumer had actually withdrawn the offer Sunday night after it became clear there would be no quick compromise on protecting the Dreamers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said if senators cannot produce a compromise plan by Feb. 8, he would open a debate on immigration legislation "fair to all sides."

While Cornyn said he hoped the bipartisan group of senators would produce a measure that can pass the Senate, "it would also have to get the president's support eventually. Because without his support, I don't think it would pass the House of Representatives," which has more conservative views on the topic.

Feb. 8 is the date legislation expires that reopened the government after a three-day shutdown, which began after Democrats demanded movement toward an immigration deal as the price for financing federal agencies.