Trump talks immigration with Joe Manchin, Doug Jones

by Jordan Fabian - 01/22/18 5:15 PM ET

President Trump on Monday met with a pair of centrist Democratic senators to discuss a path forward on immigration.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Alabama Sen. Doug Jones spoke with the president at the White House as the Senate was voting to approve a stopgap spending bill to end the three-day government shutdown.

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the meeting but declined to provide details about the discussion.

Trump is seeking to jump-start talks on immigration, a divisive issue that helped lead to the shutdown.

Democrats in the Senate helped sink a short-term spending deal on Friday because it did not include protections for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally, an attempt to force movement on the issue.

Manchin and Jones were two of the five Democrats who broke with their leaders last week and voted for the spending bill.

The impasse ended Monday, when Democrats and Republicans agreed on a three-week funding bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pledged to hold an open debate on immigration legislation if a deal is not reached by the time spending lapses on Feb. 8.

It’s still expected to be an uphill climb to reach a deal for young immigrants who benefit from the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which winds down March 5.

Democrats, and some Republicans, have complained Trump is an unreliable negotiating partner on the issue of immigration.

The president, perhaps emboldened by the spending victory, has signaled he may take a hard line approach in negotiations.

Trump met with several Republican senators earlier Monday to talk immigration, including Chuck Grassley (Iowa), John Cornyn (Texas), James Lankford (Okla.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Tom Cotton (Ark.) and David Perdue (Ga.)

Cotton and Perdue authored a proposal that would dramatically slash legal immigration rates. The measure is backed by the president, but Democrats have have already dismissed it as a nonstarter.

Trump said Monday he would make an immigration deal with Democrats “only if it is good for our country,” adding that his priority is “solving the problem of very unfair illegal immigration.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say whether Trump would accept a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, which Democrats say is a must-have.

The White House has previously rejected a bipartisan immigration plan put forward by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)