President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was open to granting legal status to millions of illegal immigrants who have not committed serious crimes, signaling a dramatic shift in his policy on undocumented workers in the United States.
"The time is right for an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides," Trump told television news anchors at a luncheon at the White House, The New York Times Reports.
The Times based its report on "people present during the discussion."
"The people requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the private meeting," according to the report.
The comments at the private luncheon marked a broad switch from Trump's longstanding hard line on illegal immigration — and they came hours before the president was scheduled to address a joint session of Congress.
President Trump's embracing of a broad immigration reform also could affect as many as 11 million people who are in the country illegally.
The White House did not dispute the report, but deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the Times that she had not witnessed the conversation and could not confirm it.
"The president has been very clear in his process that the immigration system is broken and needs massive reform, and he’s made clear that he’s open to having conversations about that moving forward," she said. "Right now, his primary focus, as he has made over and over again is border control and security at the border and deporting criminals from our country, and keeping our country safe, and those priorities have not changed."
The Huffington Post disclosed the anchors who attended the luncheon: Scott Pelley and John Dickerson, CBS News; David Muir and George Stephanopoulos, ABC News; Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, NBC News; Chris Wallace and Bret Baier, Fox News; Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer, CNN; Judy Woodruff, PBS; Trey Yingst, One America News Network; Steve Scully, C-SPAN; and Roland Martin, TV One.