The amendment appears to be a step toward the center of the GOP and away from the bipartisan Gang of Six talks Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) entered into last month. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Flake looks to meet Trump in the middle on immigration New proposal from Arizona senator incorporates elements of Trump's proposal, offers pathway for Dreamers

Sen. Jeff Flake is trying to meet President Donald Trump halfway on immigration.

The Arizona senator and Trump foil will file an immigration amendment as early as Tuesday that mirrors some of the contours of the president's plan. It will go further than some Democrats would like in tweaks to legal immigration and not as far as some border hawks will prefer, according to a summary provided to POLITICO.


The amendment appears to be a step toward the center of the GOP and away from the bipartisan Gang of Six talks Flake entered into last month. That is a legislative acknowledgment that any bill to protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program must reflect the GOP majorities in Congress and Trump's presence in the White House to become law.

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The legislation will provide Trump's requested $25 billion for a border trust fund, allowing $1.8 billion in annual border improvements. It also will give a 10- to 12-year pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants, harmonizing with the number the president has proposed. And the bill makes major changes to legal immigration, though it doesn't go as far as what Trump's framework envisions.

The bill would make major changes to the legal immigration system, limiting family-based immigrant visas to spouses and children. The repurposed visas would be first used to clear the backlog for family-based visa petitions. The visas that “remain” would be devoted to high-skilled visa categories, but how that would ultimately affect levels of legal immigration remains unclear.

In addition, the proposal would bar young immigrants granted protection under the measure from sponsoring their parents for legal status.

Flake would also reallocate the diversity lottery's visas, sending 25,000 visas to employment-based immigration and 25,000 for the family-sponsored backlog, which was nearly 4 million last year, according to the State Department.

Flake is also readying a fallback plan if nothing major can pass the Senate that would provide some border funding while protecting people enrolled in the DACA program from deportation for three years.

Ted Hesson contributed to this report.