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Editorial: Trump's immigration crackdown bad for Florida

 
President Donald Trump has fulfilled a campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration with a policy that is unjust for families, bad for communities and the economy (particularly in Florida), and harmful to America’s image.
President Donald Trump has fulfilled a campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration with a policy that is unjust for families, bad for communities and the economy (particularly in Florida), and harmful to America’s image.
Published Feb. 22, 2017

President Donald Trump has fulfilled a campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration with a policy that is unjust for families, bad for communities and the economy (particularly in Florida), and harmful to America's image. Enforcing the nation's immigration laws requires a logical approach and common sense. Trump's new policy fails miserably with its blunt approach that ignores the practical, human and economic cost of addressing a problem decades in the making.

The new policies, announced by the Department of Homeland Security, represent a sweeping change. They clear the way to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. That sets the stage for a vast, new immigrant detention force that could cost billions of dollars and involve local law enforcement officers acting as federal agents.

Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush focused enforcement efforts on undocumented immigrants who were caught soon after crossing the border, convicted of serious crimes or deemed threats to national security. Under the new rules, any immigrant here illegally and who is charged, convicted or even suspected of a crime will now be an enforcement priority. That broad list includes anyone who crossed the border illegally.

This is not a realistic strategy for enforcing immigration law or protecting border states and the public from genuine threats. It forces undocumented immigrants and their families who have lived and contributed in these communities for years to retreat to the shadows. Florida and five other states account for 60 percent of the 11 million undocumented immigrants. What will happen to tourism in Florida, which relies on these workers to clean the hotels? What will happen to agriculture when there is no one to pick the crops? In other Southern states, crops already are rotting in the fields because farm workers have gone into hiding to protect their families.

About two-thirds of undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States at least a decade, and that share is rising, according to the Pew Research Center. Those who have lived here peacefully and contributed to their communities should have the opportunity to become lawful residents, even if comprehensive immigration reform makes the process long and difficult. In some areas of the country, families who fear being deported are holding their children out of school. And good luck to police investigating crimes in immigrant communities where residents will fear being deported if they step up and talk.

On immigration, all enforcement and no reform won't work. Trump conveniently has dodged the question of how taxpayers will pay for this crackdown, or even how border control and local police will stop and detain those "suspected" of being here illegally. Mexico has already questioned the legality of being forced to act as a dumping ground under the policy for new deportees, creating another sore spot between the two nations since Trump took office.

Fortunately, Trump's policy does not change Obama's order that protects so-called "Dreamers" — more than 750,000 young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children. To his credit, Trump has promised he wants to treat them differently. But that hardly softens the edges of a policy that could break up millions of families for no reasonable purpose. This is yet another simplistic approach by a president who doesn't grasp the nuances of governing, and it will not be good for Florida's economy or its communities.