The Latest: Trump blames Dems for immigration bill fail

WASHINGTON – The Latest on immigration (all times local):

10:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump is accusing Democrats of abandoning “Dreamers,” immigrants brought to the country as children and who stayed illegally, because they wouldn’t back his immigration plan. But the Senate proposal he supported only gained 39 votes in the Senate.

Trump tweets: “Cannot believe how BADLY DACA recipients have been treated by the Democrats…totally abandoned! Republicans are still working hard.”

The president is tweeting after the Senate rejected a proposal by Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley that was in line with the president’s views. The bill fell 21 votes shy of the 60 it needed to survive.

White House spokesman Raj Shah is pointing to the president’s March 5th deadline and says, “We want Congress to act.”

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12:56 a.m.

The fate of hundreds of thousands of “Dreamer” immigrants remain in limbo, a day after the Senate rejected rival plans that would have spared them from deportation and strengthened the nation’s border security.

Senators dealt President Donald Trump an especially galling defeat. More than a quarter of his fellow Republicans abandoned him and voted against a measure based on priorities he had spelled out.

Also defeated was a plan by a bipartisan group of senators. They offered a compromise that would have shielded the young immigrants and financed Trump’s demands for money to build his border wall, though more gradually than he wants. Eight Republicans joined most Democrats in backing that plan, but it fell short after the White House threatened a veto and GOP leaders opposed it.