Immigration defeat

President Trump could have had the immigration bill he promised the nation just a few short weeks ago — the one that protected “Dreamers” and provided money for his “big beautiful wall” on the Mexican border. He could have had a “win” — and some 1.8 million immigrants brought here as children would have a path to citizenship.

But no, the president decided to change the rules in the middle of what has become a game of chance on Capitol Hill. Now nobody wins, even as a March 5 deadline looms on those who come under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

A bipartisan amendment negotiated by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mike Rounds (D-S.D.) fell just six votes short of the 60 it needed. It surely didn’t help that in the middle of voting Thursday the White House trashed that effort saying, it “would drastically change our national immigration policy for the worse by weakening border security and undercutting existing immigration law.” And the president threatened a veto.

The amendment actually would have made some concessions on the issue of so-called chain migration that Trump has demanded. It also prioritized deportation actions against criminal aliens — something Trump apparently now finds

not to his liking. Trump’s own immigration bill got a mere 39 votes in the Senate — making it the least acceptable of four options voted on that day. But Friday Trump was still blaming Democrats.

The sad lesson for the president, who campaigned as the guy who was going to bring “The Art of the Deal” to Washington, is that to deal with Congress you actually have to compromise — not on principle but on details — and count noses. Trump seems either incapable or unwilling to do either.