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Trump's immigration idea even worse than it seems

On the surface, Trump's proposal to stash illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities seems just plain illogical. Why put people into places where you get no cooperation with federal immigration officers when you want to find them? It just makes no sense.

However, when you consider the long-term ramifications, the idea is truly cynical and Machiavellian. Once in sanctuary cities, immigrants can then be ignored by federal immigration services on a simple rationale: Because they are in cities that don't cooperate with immigration services, they can't be found. Therefore, their asylum requests can't be processed. The immigrants will then be left in asylum limbo with an indefinite future.

Such a policy could easily prove to be a sneaky way for the feds to wash their hands of the asylum seekers and dump the financial burdens of their presence on the local governments where they have been left to reside. This is no way to treat people who are seeking respite from the hellish lives they face in their home countries. If for no other reason than long-term costs, the sooner we integrate immigrants into our society, the sooner they become full-fledged contributors to our economy.

There has got to be a better way, but Trump will never find it because he operates on vindictiveness rather than well thought out policy. He has no real game plan for immigration or any other issue.

Jamie Smith

Wheaton

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