Could have been a trial balloon...and trump saw that we are not going to accept it.
He told the anchors it was time for a bill that would grant legal status to many of those in the country illegally as long as both sides compromised, similar to the legislation sought but never passed by George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Mr. Trump said he recognized that it would cause him political problems with his conservative base voters, according to people in the room, but added that he thought he could keep them happy since they had stuck with him throughout last year’s Republican primaries.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/us/politics/trump-speech.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
As soon as this hit, a look at FR, Breitbart, and Twitter, showed this went over like a lead balloon with his base with people on Breitbart in particular saying they would not vote for him in 2020. Anne Coulter and Mark Krikorian essentially said it would be the end of his Presidency. It sounds like Levin went nuts over it to. The whole thing was odd and didn't make sense if light of the fact that there is a lot that can be done to encourage self deportation with e-verify, cutting benefits, ending sanctuary cities, etc. Couple that with getting the criminals out, build the wall, and then assess.