Debra J. Saunders: In Biden border policy, criminals welcome | Columnists

Investigators are told to go beyond criminal convictions (such as drunk driving convictions). “Our staff should not rely solely on the fact of the conviction or the result of a database search,” wrote Mayorkas, but also “on the entirety of the facts and circumstances.”

These guidelines mean fewer deportations, but also slower ICE investigations. As Vaughan told me, “They’re asking the ICE officers to be the defender of the illegal alien, so to speak, looking for mitigating factors.”

Meanwhile, friends and families who crossed the border illegally are telling those left behind that the coast is clear. “What really drives them is hearing from friends and families who left before them,” Vaughan told me.

No one can witness the hardships this year’s migrants endured without compassion for their ordeal and admiration for their determination, a value that makes America so great.

However, another value that makes America great is the rule of law. And this rule is shredded daily.

ICE’s budget is no smaller than it was under Trump, but its mission is.

“It will create public safety problems,” Vaughan predicted.

The pendulum swung in this direction before. In 2015, Kate Steinle, 32, was shot dead by an illegal immigrant while walking with her father on Pier 14 in San Francisco. The randomness of the crime was only surpassed by its preventability. Shooter Jose Inez Garcia Zarate, a Mexican national, has been convicted of capital crimes seven times and deported five times.