January 2, 2019 10:04AM 

# Unintended Consequences of the Federal Shutdown 

By [Jeffrey Miron](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-miron) 

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From [WAPO](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-shutdown-has-paralyzed-immigration-courts-oh-the-irony/2019/01/01/4e9c8682-0d46-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html?utm_term=.9833f5cc5361):

> IN THE name of securing the border and keeping out illegal immigrants, President Trump has opted for a partial government shutdown. Irony of ironies, that shutdown has paralyzed the nation’s immigration courts, shuttering many of them and allowing several hundred undocumented immigrants to dodge deportation orders each day the shutdown continues. They are among many hundreds of others whose cases will be postponed for years — or, in effect, indefinitely — for every day the closure lasts.

Quoting the Post’s headline, “Oh, the irony.”

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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