A year into his presidency, there’s no denying Donald Trump has been successful in his top mission, the cornerstone of his campaign he laid in a gilded hotel lobby with an offensive generalization of Mexican immigrants: deporting those here illegally and preventing new illegal crossings.

The numbers, as reported by the Department of Homeland Security through a web page that looks far too much like propaganda, are impressive.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported 61,000 people between Trump’s inauguration (no joke, the statistics are not-so-subtly based on a time frame that begins Jan. 20, 2017) and the end of fiscal year 2017. That’s a 37 percent increase over the same non-Trump time period in 2016, the website boasts.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection meanwhile reported the lowest level of illegal cross-border migration on record following Trump’s inaugural address. Still, an incredible 303,916 people were apprehended at the southern border trying to cross illegally.

And in Colorado and Wyoming the number of people arrested or deported by ICE has more than doubled since Trump took office.

So how did Trump accomplish what his predecessors, even the conservative ones, failed to achieve?

Fear and executive power.

Regardless of how you feel about Trump’s results, there cannot or at least should not be pride in his means.

The decline in illegal crossings is undoubtedly a good thing, and many of those deported were criminals deserving of exodus — even repeat offenders returning to the United States for a second or third deportation. Recently we learned five of the six men indicted last month on charges of running a heroin ring in metro Denver were here illegally.

But also caught up in the Trump administration deportation fervor is the Colorado family of Ingrid Encalada Latorre. While she was evading deportation this month in a Boulder church for her own felony conviction for possessing falsified or fraudulent documentation, her husband was picked up by ICE agents at a grocery store, based on his illegal status and a driving while impaired charge and three other misdemeanor convictions. The couple’s two children are U.S. citizens and while the parents’ records aren’t unblemished, neither are they the type of hardened criminals that should be prioritized for removal.

Colorado’s Melecio Andazola Morales will likely miss his oldest daughter’s graduation from Yale University because he was deported for the second time last year over charges from 1997 of having false documents. Sandra Lopez and her two children took sanctuary in a church in Carbondale in October after her stay of removal was revoked. Araceli Velasquez and Rosa Sabido joined the growing movement of people across the nation avoiding immigration officials at churches. These are only the high-profile cases we know of; for many Colorado families, deportation came silently and speaking out could jeopardize other family members.

Trump’s first year in office was spent disparaging immigrant populations, stoking division on the issues of race and nationality, and putting the lives of the estimated 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants in limbo. He’s been willing to tear apart even those families that have worked to become a contributing boon to American society and economy.

There must be a better way forward for America. The Denver Post editorial board dedicated its entire Perspective section on the Sunday before Trump’s inauguration last year to the issue of immigration. Conservatives, liberals and everyone in between weighed in on a constructive path forward and no one called for the president to tackle the issue alone in a manner that disrupted the lives of an entire population that is roughly the size of the state of Illinois.

What level-headed, reasonable Americans want is comprehensive immigration reform — and a Congress that can function even at the most basic level on this issue.

It’s not for a want of trying that nothing has occurred in 31 years. Colorado’s Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, has long pursued a deal on immigration that would secure the border, create enforceable immigration laws and offer a path to work and stability for those already here. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner joined Bennet this month in the futile pursuit of good public policy on immigration, putting two Colorado lawmakers at the small table of negotiations that went askew when Trump rejected the proposal in dramatic and demeaning fashion. To be sure, the legislation wasn’t comprehensive immigration reform, but it represents a massive step forward in a policy arena that has been deadlocked since 1986.

“We put forward what we thought was a reasonable, responsible plan to address issues like chain migration and border security,” Gardner said. “If the president wants more, then let’s figure out what it is.”

Just how reasonable and responsible was the offer put before Trump?

Consider the fates of immigrants, some of whom were here without proper documentation when a natural disaster struck their home countries — people from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Sudan — who have used Temporary Protected Status to put down roots in the United States as they are spared deportation and enjoy a temporary legal status.

Despite the fact that “Temporary” is in the title of the program, evicting these longtime U.S. residents with 18 months’ notice — some of whom have children who are American citizens, own small businesses, or are in school — is gutwrenchingly cruel.

Trump’s administration clearly doesn’t share those qualms, although it’s entirely unclear what is to be gained by revoking the status either.

The Bennet-Gardner solution to this quandary?

Reallocate some of the visas offered to immigrants through a diversity lottery in countries that send few people to the U.S. so that those here on Temporary Protected Status could get permanent legal status and remain without the fear of deportation. Trump, who despises the diversity lottery system, balked at that provision as unreasonable. For perspective, there are an estimated 300,000 foreign nationals in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status and the proposed compromise would have provided at the very most 50,000 visas a year for those already residing in the U.S. to be able to stay.

The proposal makes sense. Yet both Bennet and Gardner could take considerable heat from their parties for supporting it. For Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus it’s the equivalent of amnesty for a population that is not now eligible for green cards. For the Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus eliminating the diversity lottery is a nonstarter.

Trump made his sentiments about allowing immigrants from Haiti and African nations to remain in the U.S. clear in vulgar terms.

Welcome to America, where the extremists hold everyone else hostage.

And yet Trump doesn’t realize how lucky he is that Democrats have come to the table at all. Our most modest president ever is certain to claim any bill to protect Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children — as his personal victory scored only because he was brave enough to cancel the protected status offered by President Barack Obama through an executive order that should have been done through legislation years ago. The dislike of Trump among the left is so severe, some might even be tempted to deny the president this victory at the expense of young kids who have known no other country than America.

It’s the Dreamers who have suffered and will continue to suffer the consequences of this brinkmanship. These kids and young adults have staked their lives on a now-nonrenewable temporary documentation. They struggle to apply for a job or a loan or start college when their legal status in a matter of months is in question.

Yes, a year into his presidency, there’s no denying Donald Trump has been successful in his top mission, but who knew it would require upending the lives of millions of immigrants who came to the United States illegally without any relief to their current predicament in sight?

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