WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump, Congress and immigration (all times local):
11 p.m.
Top lawmakers from both parties, backed by the White House, have kicked off their search for a long-delayed and politically fraught compromise on immigration.
They’re seeking to take advantage of a window of opportunity opened by President Donald Trump.
The group faces great pressure for a breakthrough before a deadline next week that, if missed, could lead to a government shutdown that neither side wants.
Democrats want urgent action to stave off deportation of some 800,000 immigrants protected by an Obama-era program. Trump still wants his border wall, though he’s toned down what that means.
Conservatives are watching with a wary eye, fearing Trump will strike a soft compromise that could infuriate their - and his - political base heading into this year’s elections.
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3:35 p.m.
President Donald Trump says any immigration deal he signs must include funding for his promised Southern border wall.
Trump said during a joint press conference with Norway’s prime minister that funding must be part of legislation aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country illegally as children.
He says, “We need the wall” and that “without the wall it all doesn’t work.”
Furious negotiations are currently underway to come up with a fix to protect those who had been covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump ended it last year.
Trump suggested during a meeting of lawmakers Tuesday that he would be flexible, declaring at one point: “I think my positions are going to be what the people in this room come up with.”
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2:04 p.m.
More than 100 top business leaders, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and IBM’s Ginni Rometty have signed onto a public letter urging Congress to pass legislation protecting hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation.
The letter to top congressional leaders organized by the Coalition for the American Dream will also run as full-page ads in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal Thursday.
It urges the passage of bipartisan legislation that would allow nearly hundreds of thousands of young people living in the country illegally to continue to live and work in the country by Jan. 19.
It says the program’s “imminent termination” is “creating an impending crisis for workforces across the country.”
Other signatories include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Marriott’s Arne Sorenson, General Motors’ Mary Barra and Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone.
Several had been members of now-disbanded Trump advisory groups.
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1:11 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he is getting rave reviews for a White House meeting on immigration.
Trump spoke at a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, one day after meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on immigration. He said there is agreement to seek a deal that covers border security - including a wall - family-based “chain migration,” a visa lottery that draws people from diverse countries and how to extend a program for young immigrants, many of whom illegally entered the country as children.
Trump said it was not clear how many people are covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, adding he has heard it was as many as 3 million. The Department for Homeland Security says it currently covers nearly 700,000 people.
Trump says the Tuesday meeting got “great reviews.”
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11 a.m.
The Senate’s top Democrat says a bipartisan immigration deal that negotiators are seeking must be attached to must-pass budget legislation Congress will soon consider.
Sen. Chuck Schumer also says that despite a judge’s ruling temporarily blocking President Donald Trump from ending protections for certain young immigrants, lawmakers still must quickly pass legislation permanently shielding them from deportation.
The comments from the New York Democrat come a day after Trump and top lawmakers used a White House meeting to agree to pursue a deal on those immigrants.
Schumer says attaching an immigration deal to a must-pass budget bill is “the only way to guarantee” legal protections for nearly 800,000 immigrants who illegally entered the country as children.
Congress must pass spending legislation by Jan. 19 to prevent a federal shutdown.
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10:50 a.m.
The president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling on Congress to overhaul immigration laws so protect more than 1 million immigrants currently allowed to work in the United States but are at risk of losing their status.
Thomas Donohue says a White House meeting Tuesday on immigration is a “good start” even if “I am not sure we agree on exactly what we would like to do”.
Donohue’s referring to immigrants who came to the United States illegally when they were children - and also to immigrants from countries affected by natural disaster or war, and now living in the U.S. under temporary protection.
Dononue says “these hard-working individuals contribute their talents to our economy in integral ways, and we will lose them if Congress doesn’t act soon to resolve this problem”, Donohue said.
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9:45 a.m.
President Donald Trump says the U.S. court system is - in his words - “broken and unfair.”
That’s his reaction after a trial-level federal judge in California temporarily blocked the administration from ending a program that protects certain young immigrants from deportation.
The government could appeal that ruling to a San Francisco-based appeals court - where the administration’s travel ban has run into legal problems.
In his latest tweet, Trump says “it just shows everyone how broken and unfair” the court system is when those opposed to his policies find they “almost always” win in that appeals court before eventually being reversed.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a request by California and other plaintiffs to prevent Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while their lawsuits play out in court.
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8:49 a.m.
A White House spokeswoman says a judge’s ruling against the Trump administration involving a program that protects young immigrants is “outrageous.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Wednesday that the ruling was “outrageous, especially in light of the President’s successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day.”
Sanders said the issue should “go through the normal legislative process” and pledged President Donald Trump “will work with members of both parties to reach a permanent solution.”
U.S. District Judge William Alsup on Tuesday granted a request by California and other plaintiffs to prevent Trump from ending the program while their lawsuits play out in court.
The Department of Justice has said federal government is acting within its authority to wind down the program.
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1 a.m.
Bargainers seeking a bipartisan immigration accord plan to resume talks quickly. Their desire for speed comes as President Donald Trump and lawmakers seek to parlay an extraordinary White House meeting into momentum for resolving a politically blistering issue.
Negotiators want to revive protections against deportation that Trump ended for nearly 800,000 immigrants who arrived illegally in the U.S. as children. In exchange, Trump and Republicans want toughened border protections and tightened restrictions on others trying to migrate to this country.
At a White House bargaining session Tuesday, Trump told nearly two dozen lawmakers that they were “not that far away from comprehensive immigration reform.”
Adding pressure: Republicans need Democratic votes by Jan. 19 to prevent a federal shutdown. Democrats have threatened to withhold those votes without an immigration agreement.
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