WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump worked Wednesday to find an agreement on legislation legalizing undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, pitching the issue at a bipartisan White House meeting and inviting the Capitol’s top two Democrats to dinner to plot strategy.

The overtures have conservatives worried that the president will agree to a plan without strong immigration enforcement that Republicans favor, particularly since congressional GOP leaders weren’t invited to the dinner.

In response to those concerns, Mr. Trump said he was hoping for a bipartisan deal and planned to continue talking.
“Some of the greatest legislation ever passed, it was done on a bipartisan manner. And so that is why we’re going to give it a shot,” he told reporters.

Mr. Trump raised the issue at a White House meeting on Wednesday with lawmakers from both parties that had been billed as a discussion on taxes, and it was the primary item on the agenda for the dinner with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.).

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat who sat next to Mr. Trump during the meeting on taxes, said in an interview afterward that Mr. Trump made “clear that he’s open and eager to get bipartisan legislation" to resolve the issue of these immigrants.
The issue has taken on urgency since last week, when the president set an end date for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. In March, its 690,000 participants will begin to lose their protections from deportation and work permits.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) repeated his optimism that Congress can pass protections into law, saying it would “not be in our nation’s interest” to kick these people out of the country. “There’s got to be a solution to this problem,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press streamed live online.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D., Calif.) met with Mrs. Pelosi and other House Democrats for what was described as a preliminary discussion on how to advance legislation addressing DACA. Afterward, people on both sides described the meeting as productive, but declined to give details.

“Discussions among the Republican conference will continue in the coming weeks,” a Ryan spokeswoman said.
The speaker has said that the protections should be paired with border security measures, and he favors additional spending for a border wall. But he hasn’t insisted on funding for Mr. Trump’s controversial southern border wall or mentioned any other contentious enforcement provisions in connection with legislation aiding the DACA immigrants.

As conditions appear ripe for a deal, some Republicans fear an agreement that is overly favorable to Democrats. Democrats have long pushed for passage of the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for many of these undocumented immigrants, also called “Dreamers.”

Conservatives say offering legal status to any illegal immigrants should come with new immigration enforcement, including measures to find and deport people living in the U.S. illegally, not just those trying to cross the border. They argue that they have significant leverage to force Democrats to accept this since DACA protections will begin to expire in March.

“Democrats have to get on board and realize they’re not going to get anything they want if they don’t help us fix the border security issues and the interior security issues,” Rep. Raul Labrador (R., Idaho), said Tuesday.

Two Republican aides involved in the issue added that all talk of an agreement has conservatives wary, and predicted that most Republicans would reject a deal that doesn’t include substantial enforcement provisions.

Conservatives are pushing to include requiring businesses to use the E-Verify system to check whether potential employees are allowed to legally work, or measures cracking down on “sanctuary cities” that resist cooperation with federal immigration enforcement officials.

Even if Mr. Trump reaches an agreement with Democrats, it will be up to Republicans congressional leaders to bring it to the floor and sell it to their members.

Some Republicans are open to an agreement that simply pairs the Dreamer protections with border security, which could include more electronic surveillance of the border such as sensors or drones, or additional Border Patrol officers. It is unclear, though, how many votes they would bring to the floor.

Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) said this week that even a Dream Act without any enforcement provisions would pass the House if it was allowed to come to the floor. But he added that “it’s a lot easier for more Republicans to vote for it” if border security measures were included.

“Clearly, we have a lot of (undocumented) folks here mainly because we don’t have adequate border security,” he said. “While you’re fixing the problem, you want to address the underlying problem.”