No job for the city

We can think of about 1,000 different ways the city of Boston could invest tax revenue responsibly. Paying lawyers to help illegal immigrants fight deportation would not appear on that list.

Mayor Marty Walsh hedged a bit last week when asked on Boston Herald Radio whether Boston would ever use tax money to finance a legal defense fund for illegal immigrants, as some other cities are doing. Washington, D.C., is the latest to announce it will create such a program, with $500,000 in city funds. Los Angeles has pledged upwards of $10 million. Supporters say they’re preparing for a new wave of deportations under the Trump administration.

“I don’t want to say no and don’t want to say yeah, because I don’t know what the cost would be,” Walsh said.

Fortunately the mayor didn’t just use a dollars-and-cents argument to explain his reluctance.

“I think everyone deserves representation, but I think it’s a potentially very dangerous, slippery slope for the city to start getting involved in the business of paying for legal representation.” Of course it is. It’s troubling enough that “sanctuary” cities are actively helping illegal immigrants evade the grasp of federal authorities, even after those individuals have been accused of a crime. It is also unfair to ask taxpayers to fund the effort of those individuals — or any person living in the United States without permission — to stay here.

It’s particularly unfair to ask this of city taxpayers. These are federal proceedings, after all, and Boston would have no business volunteering the taxpayers to be a party to them.

Advocates argue that immigrants, particularly those seeking political asylum, struggle to pay for legal representation needed to make their case. There are legal aid agencies and law firms volunteering for the task, although there aren’t enough to go around.

But it shouldn’t be left to the taxpayers to make up the difference.

Some have compared this kind of fund for illegal immigrants to the use of public funds to pay for an indigent criminal’s defense lawyer. But there is no constitutional right to counsel to fight

civil deportation proceedings after an individual sneaks over the border or overstays a visa. This is one progressive trend Boston ought to resist.