This is Trump’s immigration crackdown, up close: cruel, immoral, unjust (Editorial Board Opinion)

Federal prosecutors said last week they intend to retry Honduran immigrant Doris Aleman-Bonilla on a felony charge of illegal re-entry after a jury failed to reach a verdict. A second trial would double down on the vast amount of taxpayer resources already squandered trying to deport someone who poses no threat to us, or to you.

Aleman-Bonilla was the first illegal re-entry defendant to come to trial in federal court in the Northern District of New York since President Donald Trump took office for a second time.

Her story, powerfully told by staff writer Michelle Breidenbach, shows what Trump’s immigration crackdown looks like, up close.

It is cruel. It is ugly. It is a perversion of justice. It is a waste.

After four days of deliberation, more than one juror refused to convict Aleman-Bonilla, despite clear evidence that she is in the country without legal permission. The case hinged on whether she was here “voluntarily.” It appears some jurors were not convinced.

We don’t know their reasons for holding out. We’d like to think they are just as queasy, just as conflicted, as the majority of Americans are about how the Trump administration is prosecuting its war on immigrants.

We are being told that immigration authorities are going after rapists, murderers, drug traffickers and gang members, “the worst of the worst,” as border czar Tom Homan describes them. The reality on the ground is very different.

As immigration authorities struggle to meet aggressive deportation quotas, equipped with a huge influx of funding from the Trump budget bill, they are going after the low-hanging fruit: people who have been here illegally for decades, quietly working and paying taxes, or are in the process of obtaining legal status. They are Chinese restaurant owners, agriculture workers and people like Aleman-Bonilla.

She is a 30-year-old mother of two who said she fled Honduras to escape death threats against her family. Aleman-Bonilla made it to the U.S. but said she went back to care for her children. She fled again, to Mexico, where she said she was kidnapped, raped and forced to carry drugs across the border. Eventually, she ran away and made a life in Fulton.

Judge Elizabeth Coombe ruled the law would not allow the 12-member jury to hear any of those facts. The federal case was simply about whether Aleman-Bonilla is a citizen of Honduras, had been deported once before and is here without legal status. Those facts are not in dispute.

Federal immigration authorities used to look the other way at otherwise law-abiding people like Aleman-Bonilla, in tacit acknowledgement that the legal immigration system is broken and parts of the U.S. economy depend on immigrant labor to function. They focused their resources on the “big fish” who were trafficking people, smuggling drugs and guns, and committing violent crimes.

When Trump took office, promising mass deportations in the millions, the federal government abandoned all discretion. It is going after gang members and 30-year-old moms with equal fervor. Luckily for Aleman-Bonilla, a couple of jurors had the courage to decide that maybe her case is not so cut-and-dried, after all. That a conviction might have been justified under the law — but would not have been just.

If Aleman-Bonilla decides not to plead guilty at this point and accept deportation, the government wants a second trial, with all the time, logistics and expense that it entails: summoning a jury, bringing the defendant back and forth from jail, arranging for language interpreters and the technology they need, and all the preparation by lawyers on both sides and the judge. Making an example of an undocumented immigrant wouldn’t be cheap. A new jury would face the same moral quandary.

The last seven months have shown us that Trump is still failing to back up the crusade against murderers and rapists he concocted. It is college students, farm workers, Chinese restaurant owners, roofers and parents in the crosshairs of the mighty federal justice system. They are treated like Mafia bosses, drug lords, gun dealers and pedophiles for the crime of entering the country illegally.

Mostly, they’re guilty and have to go home. But what does it say about us when we know that many are likely to die when they get there?

Trump’s immoral and inhumane deportation machine only functions if law enforcement, prosecutors and other public officials continue to blindly follow orders. Does anyone have the principles and courage to say no — as those jurors did?

Doris Aleman-Bonilla’s is only the first of the many cases to follow. Public opinion is turning against this policy, and must continue to turn until it changes.