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Democratic leaders, White House come to possible DACA agreement

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Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi said following a Wednesday night meeting with President Donald Trump that they have "agreed" to a fix on DACA and resolved iron out a border-security plan -- "excluding" the US-Mexico border wall that was one of Trump's most memorable campaign promises.

In an optimistic statement following the White House meeting, Schumer and Pelosi said the parties had "agreed to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and to work out a package of border security, excluding the wall, that's acceptable to both sides."

"We had a very productive meeting at the White House with the President," they said.

 

But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders pushed back on that assessment: "While DACA and border security were both discussed, excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to."

It was not immediately clear what exactly was agreed to on Wednesday night, besides the details included in the Democrats' initial statement.

The meeting follows an unexpected dealbetween Trump, Schumer and Pelosi last week that would temporarily raise the debt ceiling -- leaving the GOP and some of Trump's closest allies flabbergasted.

A White House official said in a statement that the topics discussed Wednesday included tax reform, border security, DACA, infrastructure and trade.

"This is a positive step toward the President's strong commitment to bipartisan solutions for the issues most important to all Americans," the statement said. "The administration looks forward to continuing these conversations with leadership on both sides of the aisle."

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program had protected individuals who were brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation. The Trump administration announced last week it would give Congress six months to pass legislation preserving those provisions before the program was terminated.

"We also urged the President to make permanent the cost-sharing reduction payments, and those discussions will continue," Schumer and Pelosi said.