[Detroit Free Press] We knew this was coming. But that doesn't allay any of the moral stain associated with it.The latest bend in Donald Trump's careening turn as the president of America is a long-promised brace of executive orders on immigration, signed by Trump on Wednesday: Trump has directed the Department of Homeland Security to begin work on a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a signature policy promise in his election campaign, strengthened Immigration and Customs Enforcement's efforts to deport illegal immigrants, and promised to strip federal grant money from "sanctuary cities" that offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants.
That's just Trump's latest. Already this week, the president has -- this list is by no means inclusive -- worked to hobble the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, stop U.S. funding to organizations abroad that counsel women about the option of abortion, withdrawn from the Trans Pacific Partnership, and peddled new falsehoods about voter fraud.
And it's only been five days. America's byzantine immigration system requires reform. But not like this.
Some Trump supporters had interpreted that campaign promise -- "build a wall" was a regular chant at Trump rallies -- as rhetoric symbolic of an uncompromising stance on immigration, rather than a literal wall.