Trump said he wants a 'bill of love' taking care of DACA and border security

Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), holds a bipartisan meeting with legislators on immigration reform at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 9, 2018.

• President Donald Trump said he wants a "bill of love" that protects young unauthorized immigrants in exchange for border security.
• He said he would back a two-phased approach to immigration reform that first takes care of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and border security, then later addresses more comprehensive immigration reform.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to enact bipartisan immigration reform, which he called a "bill of love," that both secures the border and resolves the fate of young unauthorized immigrants whose temporary protection from deportation is expiring.

Trump had met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House earlier that day regarding immigration. Trump said he would back a two-phased approach to immigration reform, in which Congress first passes border security measures and protects the young immigrants known as "Dreamers," and later tackles comprehensive immigration reform.

"I feel having the Democrats in with this is absolutely vital, because this should be a bipartisan bill. It should be a bill of love. Truly, it should be a bill of love. And we can do that," Trump said.

"But it also has to be a bill where we can secure our border, drugs are pouring into our country at a record pace, a lot of people are coming in that we can't have," he continued.

The talks come amid growing pressure to enact a legislative solution for the Dreamers, who have lived in the US illegally since they were children. They were temporarily shielded from deportation under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which Trump is terminating on March 5.

Trump had previously declared several times that any legislation on DACA would have to include funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border and major changes to legal immigration categories.

His insistence on the border wall in exchange for a deal on DACA was widely seen as a nonstarter. Democrats have been supportive of certain border security measures, but have stopped short of supporting a physical wall.