The Trump deportations

Through the looking glass, President Trump’s immigration police last week celebrated 100 days of getting tough on dangerous criminals by highlighting statistics that, to the contrary, suggest indiscriminate roundups and all the needless human misery they bring. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cheers a 38% jump in arrests following the President’s inauguration and Jan. 25 executive order committing to expeditious ejection from the United States of “all removable aliens” but above all criminals and others who pose risks to public safety and national security.

“Bad hombres,” to use Trump’s term, spewed during his campaign in juxtaposition with horror stories of violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

Except that, huh, by far the fastest-growing category of immigrants arrested since Trump took the White House are those with no criminal record but caught in the widened ICE dragnet. An ICE arrest is now less likely than before to haul in a dangerous criminal.

In New York, where ICE is on pace to file 50% more deportation cases in 2017 than in 2016, the agency is also much more likely than before to detain immigrants, in jails, on noncriminal charges, while they await deportation hearings — ripping families apart for no gain to public safety.

Trump intended a raw show of law-and-order strength. America is getting a reality show of counterproductive cruelty.