The dragnet and the scissors

摘要

AT ONE point as a candidate for presi-dent, Donald Trump vowed to expel all 11m undocumented immigrants estimated to live in America. At other points he also talked about concentrating deportation efforts on "bad people", which is in fact a fair description of his predecessor's policy. "They will be out so fast your head will spin," he told Bill O'Reilly, a television host, last August. Two Department of Homeland Security (dhs) memos published on February 21st offer a detailed look at Mr Trump's definition of badness, and it is broad. The documents refer to the proposed wall along the southern border, reaffirm the goal of increasing the number of border patrol and immigration officers, and herald the revival of a policy encouraging local law enforcement agencies to act as immigration agents. The memos also signal an overhaul of priorities on whom to deport, with the aim of increasing the number who could be removed speedily.