Read: How Trump radicalized ICE

Until the Trump era, the American immigration system implicitly conceded the validity of their claims. Although judges had ordered their removal, ICE never made the Mauritanians a priority. The government let them stay. Over the years, which turned into decades, the Mauritanians opened businesses; they became fans of Ohio State football; they were implanted in American soil and became citizens in all but name.

With the arrival of a new president in 2017, that sense of permanence and safety vanished in a flash. Pillars of the Mauritanian community were detained by ICE. Suddenly, ICE demanded that residents visit its offices with greater frequency; agents began to show up at private homes. ICE created a sense of fear that provoked some Mauritanians to flee to Canada of their own volition, rather than risk a return to their country of birth.

It doesn’t take a bleeding-heart liberal to see the immorality of ICE’s focus on the Mauritanians. In a very different context, members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus in the House have enumerated the despicable qualities of the Mauritanian government. They urged the IMF to stop funding the Mauritanian government, which the conservatives accused of having a “heinous human rights record.” Even the Trump administration acknowledged this. Last November, it rewrote its trade agreement with Mauritania to punish the country for its continued practice of slavery. To return the black Mauritanians to their native land is to place them in the arms of a government that has tortured and imprisoned its citizens for the color of their skin.

Read: Trump moves to deport Vietnam War refugees

Last week, ICE brought four Mauritanian men from Ohio to Louisiana, in preparation for the flight. The Board of Immigration Appeals then stepped in, blocking the deportation of two of the men; the other two have appeals pending, but may be deported before they are decided. Although ICE is forging ahead with deportations, its public-affairs office was not available to comment on the cases, due to the shutdown.

Food stamps will likely go unfunded this month; workers will fail to make mortgage payments. Trump might not be able to find the cash to pay the agents who keep his family safe, but he has the cash to send longtime law-abiding residents to their likely doom. His priorities are perfectly clear.