Donald Trump assures us that he is smart but his nemesis The New York Times has given us a play-by-play account of his monumentally stupid effort. Let's start with a simple fact. We spend more on borders and immigration enforcement already than all other enforcement efforts combined. That's almost $20 billion a year.

Trump is a dolt on immigration

ICE and the Border Patrol detain 400,000 immigrants a year now. That figure exceeds the number of Federal prisoners jailed on unrelated matters. The Times calls it "blank check, steroidal enforcement." This is what Trump wants to expand.

How about 15,000 more agents and 100,000 National Guard troops? This is the most disastrous proposal since Woodrow Wilson sought to chase down Pancho Villa a century ago. No one in Trump's camp has dared to suggest how much all this would cost.

Pray that immigration is what brings Trump down

Trump's wall will, in my humble opinion, never be built. The area it would have to cover is 1900 miles and cost estimates are for just 1000 miles. Trump's original $8 billion has now been estimated to be five times that much. You have to figure that any attempt to build the wall will bring out massive opposition and create a nice costly conflict that Trump and Bannon could revel in. If there is such a thing as compound stupidity, this is it.

The only way Trump will ever be able to claim Mexico paid for it is by the fuzzy accounting of the type that has served Trump in business over the years.

Even as Trump continues this effort, which the Times also faults for its immorality, we are finding all that money is being spent for naught.

For example, Homeland Security is having a hard time finding any evidence to support the ban. Immigration never had it so bad.

The entire immigration problem may go away if the courts continue to call Trump's orders unconstitutional. But there seems to be a gray area that Trump and Bannon hunt like predators, grabbing every chance to commit more outrages.

So we can pray that courts will find these police state tactics unconstitutional, The New York Times says of the Trump effort: "The larger costs to the economy, and the dire human toll, do not concern them." When we who are concerned can do nothing, the cost will become unbearable.
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