The current statutes are giving him a political headache, and so to thread the needle between an angry public that's telling him This Situation Sucks and his desire for more illegal aliens we have these insane, performative compromises.

It's not an inane, performative compromise. The "situation sucks" because we don't have the resources budgeted to handle it, or the rules in place to shut things down when the situation gets out of hand. We would have gotten both of those things had the bill passed. It's not the performatively draconian bill the GOP wants, but it would have materially reduced the problem.

This doesn't carry the heft that you think it does.
democrats are openly saying, "We're the party that lets illegals on it and fentanyl flood in over the border". When you say they'll never negotiate on tighter border security...you're not landing the point you think you're landing.

They'll negotiate on tighter border security - but they'll never agree to a bill that doesn't have something for the DREAMERs now that this very unusual political moment has passed.

They certainly have the harder lift, educating voters that the GOP would rather keep the status quo and have a broken system rather than actually pass a bill. The dirty little secret is that the brutal employer and farmworker enforcement provisions that are in the House Bill wouldn't have gotten enough GOP votes in the Senate - the only reason that it passed the House is that the members knew it would never get enacted. The GOP also enjoys posturing on the issue. That's the point of this exercise - to demonstrate that the majority of Democrats would vote for a border security bill, and the GOP won't.

It will certainly be a political weak point for the Democrats....but that doesn't change the fact that the Democrats did offer border hawks the best deal they've ever been offered on the border. And they said "no." Had Trump not intervened, I think the two parties would have gotten to a bill that would have gotten significant GOP support....but that opportunity is lost, now.