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Dems Announce Deal with Trump to Protect Dreamers

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Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., left, and Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top House and Senate Democrats have announced an agreement with President Donald Trump to protect certain immigrants brought illegally to this country as children — along with some border security enhancements.

The agreement does not specifically include Trump’s long-sought border wall, though White House Press Secretary tweeted “excluding the wall was certainly not agreed to.” The agreement would enshrine protections for the nearly 800,000 immigrants who benefited from a program created by former President Barack Obama that Trump has announced he is ending.

The agreement was announced in a joint statement from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, following a dinner the pair had with Trump at the White House.

It marks the second time in two weeks that Trump has bypassed Republicans to deal with Pelosi and Schumer.

Earlier Wednesday evening, Trump has told lawmakers he’s open to signing legislation protecting thousands of young immigrants from deportation even if the bill does not include funding for his promised border wall.

But Trump remains committed to building a barrier along the U.S.-Mexican border.

During a White House meeting with moderate House members from both parties, Trump urged lawmakers to come up with a bipartisan solution for the nearly 800,000 young people who had been protected from deportation and given the right to work legally in the country under former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

Trump ended the program earlier this month and has given Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix.