In searching for a legislative victory, President Trump should endorse a measure with bipartisan support that would focus immigration enforcement and State Department resources on returning criminals with deportation orders to their native countries.

During his successful campaign for president, Trump directed public attention on some of the most egregious cases of immigrants with criminal records dodging authorities and getting back on the streets, only to carry out more atrocities.

This region is well familiar with one such example. In June 2015, Jean Jacques fatally stabbed 25-year-old Casey Chadwick of Norwich. Jacques should not have been in the country. Convicted of attempted murder in 1996, Jacques served 16 years in prison. A judge had ordered his deportation to Haiti upon release. Haitian officials refused to accept him, contending lack of identifying proof of his Haitian citizenship.

Jacques ended up back in the community.

Acting on recommendations by the Office of Inspector General, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency reports that it is closing gaps in internal procedures that contributed to Jacques eluding deportation. An IG report also cites the need for ICE to work more closely with the State Department to pressure countries, such as Haiti, to meet their obligation in accepting the return of citizens who commit crimes in this country.

A law pushed by Connecticut’s congressional delegation, unofficially labeled “Casey’s Law,” would go further, requiring ICE and the State Department to prioritize deportation cases that involve violent criminals.

Unfortunately, in searching for votes, Trump rolled these horrific cases into a general condemnation of all immigrants in the country with illegal status, the vast majority who are otherwise law-abiding citizens. By attacking illegal immigration more broadly, the president would stretch resources and make it more difficult to target the most menacing.

Trump has issued an executive order intended to target such cases as the Casey killing, but the results will be constrained without the backing of Congress. The president would be better off getting behind Casey’s Law with its bipartisan support and its intent to more effectively utilize immigration enforcement resources, while satisfying his supporters who are concerned with illegal immigrant crime.

Such a legislative success could provide a bridge to practical immigration reforms that give undocumented but otherwise law-abiding immigrants the means to achieve legal status, fully rooting them into the economy and their communities.