Trump's new border compromise won't save wall from crumbling

About the president's plan, Coulter tweeted, "Trump's solution: Let's just amnesty them!" Someone needs to bone up on the English language. Amnesties are permanent and unconditional. What Trump proposes is neither.

The big flaw in the compromise proposed by the White House is that it is tied to the original sin -- DACA. The Obama administration used that program to trick desperate young people who were dying of thirst to guzzle water that wasn't safe to drink. It's hard to imagine anyone characterizing DACA as a government giveaway when the recipients did most of the giving -- handing over fingerprints, mugshots and home addresses to law enforcement who can now deport them at will.

Don't be distracted. DACA is better off dead, and it deserves no resurrection.

The "just right" solution is obvious: full legal status and green cards for the

nearly 700,000 DACA recipients, and mere protective status for the estimated

1.8 million Dreamers who didn't sign up but still shouldn't be

deported. No one gets citizenship, unless they jump through the necessary hoops to earn it.

Most importantly, we ought to make sure this whole part of the debate stays separate and apart from any horse-trading about Trump's wall, which was always doomed to fail. After all, whether you call it a wall, a fence or a steel barrier, it's expensive, poorly defined, likely to disappoint and almost certain not to keep anyone out.

Trump must realize all this by now. Surely, the former real estate tycoon knows a troubled asset when he sees one. His proposed "big beautiful wall" is as troubled as they come. Which is why he desperately needs Democrats to take the project off his hands, by accepting a deal that makes them part owners of whatever monstrosity rises from the ground.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.