Trump the Dealmaker

WASHINGTON — President Trump announced on Saturday that he would extend deportation protections for some undocumented immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a wall along the border with Mexico.

In casting the proposal as a compromise, Mr. Trump sought to shift pressure to Democrats to end the government shutdown.

The president, delivering a 13-minute address from the White House, said he would extend the legal status of those facing deportation and support bipartisan legislation that would allow some immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to keep their work permits and be protected from deportation for three more years if they are revoked.

“That is our plan,” Mr. Trump said. “Straightforward, fair, reasonable and common sense with lots of compromise.” The proposal, Mr. Trump said, was intended to “break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward.”

But he reiterated his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border barrier, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of his remarks that she considered his proposal a “nonstarter,” in part because it offered no permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.The Border Wall: What Has Trump Built So Far?The existing barrier isn’t a single mile longer than it was when he took office.Jan. 5, 2019

It was the second time during the shutdown that the president addressed the nation about what he has called an immigration crisis.You have 2 free articles remaining.Subscribe to The Times

This time, Mr. Trump made the speech standing behind a lectern, under an oil portrait of George Washington, a setting aides said he preferred to the seated, direct-to-camera Oval Office address he delivered earlier this month when he highlighted what he described as a growing “security crisis” at the border.

He tried to weave in the concessions to Democrats with a hard-line appeal to his base, opening his remarks with the same kinds of warnings of exploited children and rape that he said confront undocumented immigrants at the border.

But over all, the remarks stood in contrast to that prime-time address, in which the president sought to reframe the debate by outlining examples of grisly violence at the border. That address, which Mr. Trump was reluctant to make, failed to turn public opinion to his side. This time, Mr. Trump struck a more inclusive tone, calling his proposal a “common-sense compromise both parties should embrace” and noting that his was a “compassionate response.”

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He even appeared to play down the wall at the center of the standoff with Democrats. “This is not a 2,000-mile concrete structure from sea to sea,” he said. “These are steel barriers in high-priority locations. Much of the border is already protected by natural barriers such as mountains and water.”

On Saturday, Mr. Trump also hosted a naturalization ceremony at the White House, a move intended to underscore the idea that he supports legal immigration.