Even if the president and his subordinates do not take most of America’s immigration laws seriously, at least they do seem interested in ridding the country of those illegal immigrants who break other laws.

The Obama administration is expanding a program initiated by President George W. Bush aimed at checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails. In four years, the measure could result in a tenfold increase in illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and identified for deportation, current and former U.S. officials said.

By matching inmates' fingerprints to federal immigration databases, authorities hope to pinpoint deportable illegal immigrants before they are released from custody. Inmates in federal and state prisons already are screened. But authorities generally lack the time and staff to do the same at local jails, which house up to twice as many illegal immigrants at any time and where inmates come and go more quickly.

The effort is likely to significantly reshape immigration enforcement, current and former executive branch officials said. It comes as the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress vow to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes, rather than those who otherwise abide by the law.

Of course, every single illegal immigrant violates our nation’s laws by virtue of their presence on our soil. That said, I can accept the notion that it is best to get rid of the more serious lawbreakers among them. Still, it is too bad that there is a reluctance to work to remove every illegal from our soil – especially at a time that we are seeing so many leave voluntarily for economic reasons.