President Donald Trump met at the White House with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Wednesday to discuss the Gateway project to expand rail capacity in New York, for which the Trump administration froze funding last October.

"In the meeting, Leader Schumer emphasized the urgent need to promptly release the already-secured funds for the Gateway Program — the most important infrastructure project in the nation employing thousands of workers and vital to New York and the entire Northeast economy," his office said.

Schumer also used the opportunity to raise concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and healthcare.

"Schumer also told President Trump that their actions are dangerous and putting more people at risk and he must pull back ICE from U.S. cities," said a statement from the senator's office.

The Gateway tunnel project is a major rail infrastructure effort aimed at building two new passenger train tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York City, replacing and relieving the century-old North River Tunnels that were damaged during Superstorm Sandy.

The project is led by the Gateway Development Commission in partnership with Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the federal government.

It is designed to protect and expand rail capacity into New York City's Penn Station, which serves about 600,000 passengers a day.

The Trump administration in October froze about $18 billion in federal funds for Gateway and related transit work during a government shutdown and later Trump publicly declared that the project was "terminated," saying his administration was pulling support for what he called billions in spending championed by Senate Democrats.

Local officials have vowed to fight to restore funding, and discussions between Trump and lawmakers have included Gateway's future as part of broader negotiations over infrastructure and federal spending.