For someone so unpredictable, Donald Trump's State of the Union speech on Tuesday was surprisingly generic. The only odd thing about it was the fact that he stayed on script for 80 minutes. Even he seemed bored by it, delivering a low-energy performance that edged into somnambulism as the clock ticked past the one-hour mark.
But the speech wasn't entirely empty. Mr. Trump used it to outline a deal on immigration reform that appeared, on the surface, to be a middle route for solving the dilemma of the so-called "Dreamers" – the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, people whom the President's supporters want deported.
In September, under pressure from his base, Mr. Trump ended a five-year-old program that gave Dreamers temporary visas and work permits, putting the futures of as many as 800,000 people in doubt. But he also asked Congress to come up with a permanent solution, largely because polls show that 85 per cent of Americans feel these well integrated newcomers ought to be allowed to stay.
Mr. Trump said in his speech he is willing to give Dreamers a path to citizenship in exchange for more border security, and the end of the policy that allows immigrants to sponsor members of their extended family – siblings, nephews and nieces – who want to come to America.
It's debatable whether this capricious President has the spine to pull off such a daunting deal. Giving amnesty to even one illegal immigrant would hurt him politically. It's also an open question as to whether he can persuade enough Republicans in Congress to support it.
But it's still a mistake to refuse the offer, something many Democrats in Congress are doing on the grounds that the existing family-reunification policy – which is sacred to their voters – is not up for negotiation.
Mr. Trump is putting himself on the political line by proposing this deal, and he's asking Democrats to do the same. They should grab this offer and run with it.
If it worked, immigrants would still be able to sponsor spouses and minor children, and the Dreamers would finally be protected – a major Democratic accomplishment.
In return, Mr. Trump would get more funding for border security and be able to boast he'd ended the dreaded "chain migration" he likes to scare Republican voters with.
There was a time when this sort of bipartisan compromise would have been applauded. Today, it's seen as selling out to the other side. Dysfunctional politics have left 800,000 blameless people in limbo for decades. Here's a chance, however improbable the source, to find a better way.