Trump urged bitterly partisan legislators to put their country first as he continued to try to make good on his campaign promise of sweeping immigration reform.

President Trump wants to put an end to chain migration and a “visa immigration lottery” that admits people from all over the world into the U.S. largely unvetted.

But, it’s Trump’s border wall that poses the biggest obstacle to getting any sort of cooperation from liberals. Trump addressed the controversial issue at the White House on Tuesday, and with Demcorats at the table he called for bi-partisan support.

Democrats are demanding that DACA – the Obama-era policy that allows for the children (most are now adults) brought in by illegal immigrants to remain in the United States – be reinstated before any border wall discussion can be negotiated.

Pres again insisted that that a border wall has to be part of deal to reauthorize DACA – the program to allow young people brought into US illegally by their parents. "Yes, it has to be," he said. pic.twitter.com/THTh91PZHO — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) January 9, 2018

“I had the big meeting with ICE last week. I had a big meeting with the border patrol agents last week. Nobody knows it better than them,” Trump said. “As an example, on the wall, they say, ‘sir, we desperately need the wall. And we don’t need a 2,000 mile wall. We don’t need a wall where you have rivers and mountains and everything else protecting. But we do need a wall for a fairly good portion.'”

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Trump went on to say that fences, and other border security measures were started in the past, but were never finished. He said now is the time to make good on decades of promises over border security.

“So I’m appealing to everyone in the room to put the country before party and to sit down and negotiate and compromise and let’s see if we can get something done.”

The President remained hopeful that they’re might be some bipartisan support down the road.

“I will say, though, that I really do believe Democrat and Republican, the people sitting around this table want to get something done in good faith. And I think we’re on our way to do it. This is an idea I had last week. I was sitting with some of our great Republican senators. And we all agreed on everything.”

Trump said that meeting prompted him to ask Democrats to be in on the discussions, and said he welcomed an open forum and debate.

“I say let’s have the same meeting but let’s add the Democrats. And that’s what we’ve done. And I think we’re going to come up with an answer. I hope we’re going to come up with an answer for DACA. And then we go further than that later on down the road.”