WASHINGTON _ Although President Donald Trump has railed against illegal immigration since he began campaigning 20 months ago, his biggest new proposal in his high-profile address to lawmakers Tuesday night was about revamping legal immigration.
Trump proposed tilting admissions into the U.S. toward skilled workers to allow in people who are less likely to use federal assistance or compete with low-wage workers. The current U.S. system favors family unification and allowing strivers from around the globe to take advantage of American opportunity.
Such an overhaul would require action by Congress, and Trump told lawmakers that "real and positive immigration reform is possible" as long as the changes improve wages for Americans and increase security.
"If we are guided by the well-being of American citizens, then I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that has eluded our country for decades," Trump said.
In the hours leading up to the speech, Trump generated a flurry of attention by remarking during a White House lunch with television anchors that he believes he is the right person to bring both sides together for a compromise on immigration policy.
Over chicken and spinach gnocchi, Trump said that positions on both sides need to be "softened," and he could support a bill that allowed people with no criminal record to stay in the country and work and pay taxes, according to a White House official present for the discussion.
"The time is right for an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides," Trump said, according to the official.
But the remark may have been mostly a reflection of Trump's penchant for playing to his audience _ in this case, journalists demanding answers about whether he can work with Congress on his top policy issue.
White House officials stressed that no new legislative reform effort was underway, and immigration advocates were skeptical that Trump's comment presaged a shift in his hard-line approach.
"It's not something I would take to the bank," said Angela Kelley, an immigration expert at the Open Society Policy Center. "If he's read his own executive orders, he would probably understand the skepticism."
Trump has expressed a willingness to ease his stance on immigration before. He told senators as recently as two weeks ago that they should revive a 2013 proposal that passed in the Senate but died in the House.
And in a news conference Feb. 16, Trump wavered when asked whether he will end President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields from deportation some young people who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children.
"The DACA situation is a very, very _ it's a very difficult thing for me because, you know, I love these kids, I love kids, I have kids and grandkids. And I find it very, very hard doing what the law says exactly to do and, you know, the law is rough," Trump said.
"I'm not talking about new laws, I'm talking the existing law, is very rough, it's very, very rough," Trump said.
In addition, despite a campaign promise to end the Obama-era program that gives work permits to those young people, known as "Dreamers," Trump has allowed his administration to continue to issue them.
Top aides, however, have identified ways to end the program without Trump's fingerprints, including through legal guidance issued by the departments of Homeland Security or Justice or through a lawsuit brought by states that the administration could decline to defend.
Trump has taken a hard-line approach on immigration so far. During his first week in office, the president wiped away restrictions on immigration officers, opening the door to deportations for millions of immigrants in the country illegally, and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to hire 10,000 more deportation officers and 5,000 more Border Patrol agents.
Trump has the trust of immigration hard-liners, noted Alfonso Aguilar, head of the advocacy group Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, but also has expressed a willingness to find a solution for people who are basically law-abiding and want to work in the country.
"Ironically, perhaps, Trump is the one that can do it," Aguilar said.
Trump believes his election puts the Republican-led Congress in a position to navigate one of the thorniest policy thickets after two failures to pass a bill in the last decade, including the 2013 effort.
"The president has been very clear in his process that the immigration system is broken and needs massive reform, and he's made clear that he's open to having conversations about that moving forward," Sarah H. Sanders, White House deputy press secretary, told reporters.
