Democrats are demanding a permanent fix to protect young undocumented immigrants - so-called Dreamers - and have indicated they are willing to risk a government shutdown over the issue as congressional leaders headed to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.
Also on Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to extend government funding - which was set to run out Friday - for another two weeks, setting up a potential showdown over controversial issues such as immigration at the end of the year. Multiple Democratic senators have suggested they won't vote for any government funding bill unless it also incudes a permanent fix for Dreamers.
“We're all here as a very friendly, well-unified group. It's a well-knit-together group of people,” Mr Trump said at the start of the meeting in the Oval Office. “And we hope that we're going to make some great progress for our country. I think that will happen, and we appreciate it very much.”
“We hope we can come to an agreement,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “Funding the government is extremely important, helping our soldiers is very important, and helping average citizens is very important. So we're here in the spirit of: let's get it done.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said they hoped to address topics including the opioid crisis, programmes for veterans and the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP.
Chip, currently in limbo, covers nearly nine million children whose parents earn too much for Medicaid - a healthcare programme for the poor - but not enough to afford other coverage.
The remarks by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were briefer.
“Mr President, we're here to reach a bipartisan agreement to finish out the year. And I'm glad that you invited us. I'm happy to be here.” Mr McConnell said.
Mr Ryan quickly stated: “I'm glad we're here to resume conversations.”
The original meeting between the top Democrats, top Republicans and Mr Trump was originally scheduled for last week. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dramatically pulled out after the President attacked them on Twitter.
Mr Trump suggested last week he doesn't see the White House being able to reach a deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown, saying a problem is “they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked”.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump told reporters a shutdown “could happen”.
“The Democrats are really looking at something that is very dangerous for our country. They are looking at shutting down,” he said. “They want to have illegal immigrants; in many cases, people that we don’t want in our country.”
Democrats say these claims are incorrect - that they don’t want a government shutdown or immigrants streaming into the country illegally.
On Thursday, Ms Pelosi said Democrats will insist on safeguards for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme before the holiday recess later this month.
“We will not leave here without a DACA fix,” Ms Pelosi told reporters, according to the newspaper The Hill.
Mr Trump announced in September that he was rescinding the Obama-era policy that has allowed nearly 800,000 Dreamers to work and go to school without fear of deportation. He gave Congress until March to figure out a solution.
There was confusion in September over whether the President had made a deal with Democrats to permanently protect Dreamers and work out a package of border security, excluding Mr Trump's oft-promised border wall.
Ms Pelosi and Mr Schumer said both sides agreed that the wall would not be part of this agreement - but that the President made clear he intends to pursue it at a later time.
Mr Trump has maintained that building a wall along the US's southern border with Mexico will prevent illegal immigration, despite scepticism from experts and even members of his own party.
Ms Pelosi emphasised on Thursday that Democrats will accept tougher border security, but not border wall funding or provisions to bolster interior enforcement.
“We said to the president the night he agreed to the DACA legislation that we have a responsibility to protect our border, and we think there are many things we can do working together to do that,” Ms Pelosi said.
“[But] we’re not going to turn this country into a reign of terror of domestic enforcement and have the Dreamers pay that price,” she added.
