In this Oct. 7, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving the White House in Washington for a brief stop at Andrews Air Force Base in Md., on his way to Greensboro, N.C.

WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's administration released a list of hard-line immigration priorities Sunday that threaten to derail efforts to protect from deportation hundreds of thousands of young illegal aliens, many of whom were brought into the United States as children.

The demands include overhauling the country's green-card system, hiring 10,000 more immigration officers and building Trump's promised wall along the southern border. Many are policies Democrats have explicitly said are off the table.

But Trump administration officials said the president will insist on their passage in exchange for supporting legislation that would extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

"These priorities are essential to mitigate the legal and economic consequences of any grants or status to DACA recipients," White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters. "We're asking that these reforms be included in any legislation concerning the status of DACA recipients."

In a conference call with reporters, White House aides described the proposals as a necessary step to protect public safety and jobs for American-born workers, which was a centerpiece of Trump's campaign. The president has moved to tighten border security since taking office through a series of executive orders, including curbs on immigration and refugees from some majority-Muslim nations and an increase in deportations from the interior of the country.

The number of immigrants who have attempted to enter the country illegally across the Mexican border has dropped sharply since Trump took office.

Democrats had hoped that Trump, who had equivocated over the DACA program before deciding to terminate it in the face of a legal challenge from Texas, would be open to crafting a narrow legislative deal to protect those who are part of the program. But White House aides emphasized they expect Congress to include the principles released Sunday in any package deal, a nonstarter for Democrats and some moderate Republicans.

Initiated under President Barack Obama, DACA protected hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation and allowed them to continue working legally in the United States. Trump announced a phase-out of the program last month, but he has given Congress six months to come up with a legislative fix.

Included on the list of demands: limiting family-based green cards to spouses and the minor children of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and creating a point-based system.

The White House also said it wants to boost fees at border crossings, make it easier to deport gang members and unaccompanied children, and overhaul the asylum system. And it wants new measures to crack down on "sanctuary cities," which don't share information with federal immigration authorities, among other proposals.

Immigration hardliners expressed support for the administration's immigration proposals. Rep. Bob Goodlatte-R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, praised the administration for "a serious proposal" and said that "we cannot fix the DACA problem without fixing all of the issues that led to the underlying problem of illegal immigration in the first place."

Democrats vehemently oppose many of the demands laid out in the administration list.

In a joint statement, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said the list "goes so far beyond what is reasonable" and "fails to represent any attempt at compromise.

"The Administration can't be serious about compromise or helping the Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans," they wrote, referring to those protected under DACA.

"If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so," they said.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, accused the administration of trying to "use Dreamers as bargaining chips to achieve the administration's deportation and detention goals."

"Congress should reject this warped, anti-immigrant policy wish list," he said, adding: "Immigrants are humans; we should craft policies that treat them as such."

House Speaker Paul Ryan's spokesman Doug Andres said the House immigration working group will review the list and consult with Republican members and the administration.

"We would expect Congress to include all the reforms in any package that addresses the status of the DACA recipients," said one White House aide on the conference call who was not authorized to speak on the record. "Other views had their fair day in the democratic process."

Noting the Republicans swept the White House and both chambers of Congress last November, the aide added: "The American public voted for the reforms included in this package."

Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin of The Associated Press and David Nakamura of The Washington Post.

A Section on 10/09/2017