WASHINGTON — Deadlocked with Congress on an immigration issue that both parties say they support, President Donald Trump has gone on the attack, blaming Democrats and further dimming the chances of agreement before November’s elections to protect so-called Dreamers from deportation.

In a speech to Republican-friendly Latino business leaders Wednesday, Trump said he wants to sign a law replacing the Obama-era program — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — to allow up to 1.8 million young immigrants who are in the country illegally to stay, get work permits, attend college or serve in the military. The problem, he said, is Democrats.

“They’re nowhere to be found. It’s really terrible,” Trump said, while Republicans are “ready, willing and able.”

He urged the audience: “Go get DACA. Go push those Democrats. I’m telling you it’s lost. So this is a moment for DACA, for all of us.”

The president’s comments, which echoed his partisan tweets of recent days, reflected his sensitivity to being blamed himself for the demise of a program that is broadly popular with Americans. His speech came in a week when the program was supposed to end, by his order of last September, and after he rejected bipartisan Senate legislation to replace it last month. The president’s party, which controls Congress, has been unable to agree on legislation it could pass without Democrats’ backing.

Democrats point out that DACA’s proposed expiration is a problem of Trump’s own making, given his September order putting nearly 700,000 young permit-holders at risk of deportation.

“Right now the president created this crisis and only the president can end this crisis,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday in the Senate. “Six different times we’ve gone to him and six different times he’s rejected bipartisan approaches.”

Court decisions have temporarily kept the program partially operating, in the meantime, requiring the administration to continue renewing the two-year protections indefinitely for people already approved for DACA permits. That was unchanged by a third court ruling this week in the president’s favor.

The two earlier federal court decisions also removed the urgency for Congress and the White House to act on a substitute program, according to lawmakers from both parties.

“While I’m glad that DACA recipients have a little bit more time, for some, that urgency is no longer there,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida who has worked on previous immigration bills.

Similarly, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, said Wednesday: “Some of the time pressure has gone off DACA, but if you’re a DACA kid, you’re a DACA young adult, you still feel that pressure, I’m sure.”

Republicans and Democrats each are waiting for an overture or concession from the other party, according to interviews on Capitol Hill.

Democrats, however, are less eager to act in the wake of the court rulings, banking that they will have more congressional seats — and more leverage — after the midterm elections.

The Senate last month failed to pass either Trump’s preferred bill, which would not only legalize the young immigrants but also restrict legal immigration, or a separate, bipartisan measure with more support. Afterward, several GOP senators suggested extending the current DACA program as part of a government-spending bill that must pass by March 23 to avoid another federal shutdown.

Yet as Republican and Democratic leadership aides have met this week to determine what goes into the spending bill, neither side has proposed adding an immigration provision, three aides said.

Washington Bureau’s Cathleen Decker and Christi Parsons contributed.

brian.bennett@latimes.com