President Donald Trump’s claim that his administration would focus its massive deportation efforts on removing criminals isn’t proving all that reliable.

The decision by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials early this month to rein in a little-used congressional privilege exposes the hardliner ideology behind statistics that show many of those being trucked out of the county aren’t bad actors.

ICE’s policy change also complicates celebration of the agency’s sensible agreement to stop deportation orders on Denver’s Jeanette Vizguerra and Arturo Hernandez Garcia. The stayed deportations suggested the agency meant to mute its chilling message in its arrest and plan for the deportation of Hernandez Garcia last month. (How else to interpret seizing a well-known sanctuary seeker who in July 2015 left a Denver church basement with a letter from federal officials informing him he was good to go?)

Similarly, the agency’s crackdown led Vizguerra into sanctuary. Her story made her one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Read more at The Denver Post