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This editorial represents the opinion of the Dispatch editorial board, which includes the publisher, editor, editorial page editor and editorial writers. Editorials, like opinion columns, represent a particular viewpoint and are not to be confused with news stories.

Immigration has been President Donald Trumps signature issue since the start of his candidacy in 2015, so its not surprising that, of all the institutions that have been damaged and twisted by this toxic presidency, the U.S. immigration system might be the worst hit.

Thats not to say that it was in good shape before Trump. For decades, Congress has been unable to agree on how to effectively and humanely manage the ceaseless flow of people seeking better lives in the United States.

But the radical transformation of priorities and tactics under the 45th president has been truly shocking. And, disturbingly, the worst of it seems to be driven by the malignant views of one adviser: White House aide Stephen Miller, said to be obsessed with reducing immigration and known to favor the writings of white supremacists.

Millers influence has built a worse-than-ever backlog in U.S. Immigration Court. TRAC, a nonpartisan federal data research center at Syracuse University, reported recently that the backlog has nearly doubled since Trump took office and is now at nearly 1.1 million cases. In Ohio, 12,851 cases are pending, up from 6,184 in 2016.

Immigration courts have been underfunded for decades. Congress and presidents of both parties share blame for ramping up immigration enforcement spending far more than courts and thus feeding the backlog. But two Trump administration moves, besides being wrongheaded, have made things far worse.

In his first days in office, Trump declared that deportation actions no longer would be focused on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes; now, all those in the country illegally are of equal priority for deportation. It is both cruel and dangerous, not only ripping apart families who are living peacefully and productively but also spending scarce resources that should be focused on deporting bad guys instead upending innocent lives.

In May 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions Millers onetime boss decreed that immigration judges no longer can dismiss cases administratively and ordered that thousands of previously closed cases be reopened.

Besides this maladministration, Miller reportedly was the driving force behind the decision to separate immigrant children from their parents at the border Trumps most outrageous immigration action to date. Now, Miller is determined to enact a rule that would deny permanent resident status to legal immigrants who have received any public benefits such as food stamps, Medicaid and Section 8 housing vouchers or who are deemed likely to ever need such help.

The rule has been blocked temporarily by a federal judge, who called it repugnant to the American Dream and said the administration offered no good reason for why the change is necessary.

Recently, emails from Miller, made public by a former editor of the alt-right website Breitbart, illustrate his seeming obsession with immigration, especially by nonwhites, as a threat to America. He spoke admiringly of President Calvin Coolidge for introducing discriminatory national-origin quotas that were aimed at keeping out Italians and Poles and now are viewed as bigoted.

There is plenty to debate about how to manage immigration, but Millers dark vision of a fearful fortress, closed to all but the already fortunate, is not the idea of America that most Americans cherish.

We can only hope that the better vision of America as a refuge from oppression survives until the Trump administration is history.

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Editorial: America is not the bigoted fortress of Stephen Millers vision - The Columbus Dispatch