WASHINGTON — The White House aggravated hard-line conservatives and Democrats when it proposed granting citizenship to 1.8 million Dreamers in exchange for border wall funding and drastic changes to the nation’s immigration laws.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn is a man in the middle.

The Senate majority whip, who has emerged as a key Republican negotiator in talks to resolve the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, says he supports a permanent solution for young immigrants in the country illegally. He has the trust of his Republican colleagues, who have tapped him to serve as as “clearinghouse” for ideas, alongside Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

He also has a track record on immigration that has left some Democrats, as well as advocates on both sides of the debate, skeptical.

Immigration hard-liners say Cornyn’s support for guest worker programs and now Dreamers renders him a pro-amnesty moderate.

“GOP Sen. Cornyn Grabs Leading Role in Amnesty Talks” blared a recent headline from the far-right website Breitbart, accusing him of a “record of supporting cheap-labor, loose-immigration policies which have cut Americans’ salaries.”

Immigration advocates counter that Cornyn has talked a good game in past debates, only to side with the hawks.

“There is no way that Sen. Cornyn can be trusted,” said Mario Carrillo, head of America’s Voice Texas, warning that Cornyn won’t do anything “that doesn’t appease the right-wing members of Congress and the right-wing nationalists in the administration.”

Cornyn, chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, has said these overhauls are inherently fraught. “Each of us sort of bring our own baggage, particularly to the immigration debate, where there seems to be so much distrust,” he said.

Groups like America's Voice say Cornyn is partly to blame because he's called for immigration reform but voted against many legislative attempts, such as the 2010 DREAM Act. Cornyn also has a history of throwing roadblocks in previous immigration debates, critics say, such as the 2013 comprehensive immigration overhaul crafted by the "Gang of Eight."

Then, as bipartisan legislation moved toward a final vote in the Senate, Cornyn criticized the bill as weak on border security and offered an amendment that would have required the U.S. to achieve tougher standards, such as a 90 percent apprehension rate and complete surveillance of the border, before immigrants could be granted legal status.

At the time, Cornyn defended his amendment as "complements to the kinds of sensible reforms that members of both parties have endorsed" and said he couldn't support the final bill without it.

But others saw it as an effort to tank the overhaul, and derided the measure as cost-prohibitive, logistically improbable and a "poison pill."

In the end, the Senate scrapped Cornyn’s proposal for a milder border security alternative crafted by GOP colleagues. The legislation passed the Senate — without Cornyn’s vote — but died in the House because of opposition on the right.

Cornyn defenders say he was mindful of the political realities in the House. But Simon Rosenberg, founder of the progressive think tank NDN, said Cornyn has "been far more inflammatory to the immigration conversation than he's been a deal maker."

Some of the Democrats who worked on the “Gang of Eight” bill are wary of Cornyn’s pledge to reach a deal on Dreamers now.

"I'd like to think that Sen. Cornyn is actually trying to find a solution on DACA. I don't get that sense," Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told The Dallas Morning News in the days leading up to the partial government shutdown, when Cornyn urged Democrats to drop their push for a DACA fix in the stopgap spending bill.

Some say that's just sour grapes as Menendez is part of a new "Gang of Six," led by Durbin and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whose bipartisan proposal Cornyn declared dead on arrival.

The “Gang of Six” deal to fix DACA will not get a vote in the House or the Senate because POTUS will not sign it. Let's go back to the drawing board and get this done: Border Security, end Diversity Visa Lottery, limit chain migration, and fix DACA — Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) January 17, 2018

Asked about his skeptics, Cornyn was unfazed.

“The people I listen to are the 38 percent of the Texas population that are Hispanic, the 124,000 DACA recipients who find themselves in a box and are looking to us for a solution,” Cornyn said in a recent conference call with Texas reporters. “But I also represent constituents who live along that 1,200-mile border with Mexico who realize that the federal government has failed in its responsibility to provide adequate border security.”

‘He wants to get it done’

To be sure, the Texan has his believers.

Ennis Rep. Joe Barton, a rare Lone Star Republican who has signed onto a number of bills to protect Dreamers, said he’s repeatedly talked to Cornyn about a DACA fix and that “he wants to get it done.”

Barton pointed to the political reality back in Texas, where about two-thirds of Republican primary voters support legalization of DACA but, according to him, 90 percent support President Donald Trump’s border wall and want increased border security.

“My guess is that what Sen. Cornyn is trying to do is solve both issues, and I think we’ll get it solved,” Barton said. “It’s good to have him in the room. It’s good for the DACA group that he’s in there.”

And Tamar Jacoby, who as president of ImmigrationWorks USA represents businesses in favor of improving immigration laws, defended Cornyn as an effective advocate for legal immigration that is good for the economy. Especially in Texas, which relies heavily on immigrant labor.

“He does understand that not all immigration, but some immigration, is in America’s interest, and the question is how to make that work,” she said.

Javier Palomarez, CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said he’s worked well with Cornyn for years. While they don’t always agree, the senator has always been upfront with him about his policy views and the political realities of negotiations.

When it comes to current immigration debate, “The reality of it is, we’re not going to get anywhere until we start getting some Republican buy-in. He’s been strategic in making both parties understand that this has got to be bipartisan, that nobody is going to get everything they want,” he said.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has said granting Dreamers a path to citizenship would be a "serious mistake." (Carolyn Kaster / The Associated Press)

Texas attitudes

An October 2017 poll conducted by the University of Texas/Texas Tribune indicated most Texas voters — nearly 60 percent — oppose deporting Dreamers. But only 39 percent of Republicans polled said they favor continuing the DACA program.

Among GOP voters, 69 percent of those who identify as tea party Republicans said they’d end DACA, while only 41 percent of non-tea party Republicans would halt it.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston, said Cornyn is no doubt mindful of those dynamics back home.

“There’s a need to play to a conservative base that demands border security at all costs, but a rational need to have a functioning immigration system to please the country club business type,” he said.

Cornyn will also face comparisons to his Texas counterpart, Sen. Ted Cruz, who has signaled opposition to any deal that would grant Dreamers a pathway to citizenship.

“It would be a serious mistake for Congress to pass amnesty legislation with a path to citizenship for those here illegally,” Cruz said in recent days.

Cornyn, meanwhile, has said he’s open to a “permanent solution” for DACA recipients in exchange for permanent border security measures.

No matter the outcome, Cornyn will take heat from somewhere, Rottinghaus said.

“Given his position of having to work with a divided caucus,” Cornyn could be “more worried about getting the credit for passing [an immigration bill] than the blame for not passing it,” Rottinghaus speculated.

Key hurdles

Finding compromise will be a key test of Cornyn’s ability to do his job — whipping votes — as he must shepherd a deal that can survive a fractious GOP caucus, win at least some Democratic support, and pass Trump’s muster.

That task became even tougher in recent days, after the White House unveiled a proposal to give as many as 1.8 million young immigrants a pathway to citizenship in exchange for $25 billion for the border wall, end the diversity visa lottery and restrict so-called chain migration.

The Texan said he expects disagreements over the latter issues — the diversity visa lottery and family-based migration — will be the biggest hurdles to agreement. “But we're going to have to deal with the fact that the president is insisting on those,” Cornyn said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging lawmakers to reach a deal before the current stopgap spending bill expires on Feb. 8. If they fail, he’s pledged to take up an immigration bill, though he hasn’t specified which one.

Cornyn, meanwhile, is keeping his eye on the March 5 deadline, when Trump set DACA to expire. That’s pending the outcome of a legal battle, however, after a federal judge ruled earlier this month for the administration to resume accepting DACA applications.

Key to success is the president’s final blessing, Cornyn said. Especially in the House, where far-right forces could thwart a bill’s chance at success. Trump’s approval, Cornyn said, could give “sufficient political cover to people across the spectrum.”

CORRECTION, 9:36 a.m., Jan. 29, 2018: An earlier version of this story indicated the White House proposal would end family-based immigration policies. It would restrict them.