If any government openly stated it intended to pick upon the weak, the vulnerable, the ill, those dealing with tragedy and anyone unable to speak up for themselves, there would be uproar.
This government does it cynically to throw red meat to those who have concerns over mass immigration, and to distract from the fact that we're doing absolutely nothing about the true issues. It's as disgusting a strategy as it is simple: pick upon people who can't defend themselves and show a severe lack of compassion and simple crass intolerance. Kick a few people out of the UK who should obviously be allowed to stay, and hope that people don't notice that overall immigration figures are at record levels because our government has been too impotent to do anything about it. Make an example of the innocent, and hope that we won't notice the failure to deport those who have abused our hospitality and committed serious crimes - or that we can't because of 'human rights' legislation.
So we have the 92-year-old woman from South Africa, whose family are all in the UK, who has nowhere to go and no-one to care for her if she's sent back to South Africa. That case was taken to court to force her deportation. If it weren't for the public outcry then the government wouldn't have had to back down (and in a case that's dragged on for months, the climbdown actually occurred whilst I was in the middle of writing this article).
Or what about the Nigerian student who the government wants to get rid of, so that he can die of Hepatitis B in Nigeria rather than survive in the UK - despite the fact that he's contributed massively to the UK whilst here? This vendetta can only be described as pure nastiness.
How about the Canadian woman who cared for and married a motor neurone disease sufferer, who is looking after his three children after his death, who faces deportation? Apart from the obvious trauma it'll cost to the kids, are we really so clueless as to the economic cost of unnecessarily taking three children into foster care? It's hard to imagine a more unthinking decision.
There is absolutely no justification for this - or for a raft of other cases which I could mention. But it's a great dog-whistle way for an exploitative government to try to distract us from what's really going on.
We've had killers given the right to stay in the UK, Abu Hamza's daughter-in-law fighting extradition to face justice in Morocco, a Zimbabwean robber and drug dealer freed to roam the streets and a rapist fighting deportation given extra taxpayers' money because he'd spent his current allocation on cigarettes.
There are many more of these appalling decisions. Murderers, IRA gunmen and terrorists are being allowed to stay in the UK thanks to the European Convention on Human Rights. We're now being sued by those who aren't even in the United Kingdom, who've crossed safe country after safe country but want to seek asylum in England instead.
Why doesn't Cameron do something about it? Because he knows that in order to be in the European Union, you have to accept the Convention. And he's hell-bent on remaining in the EU, come what may. For the same reason, he won't speak out about mass immigration. He promised before he became PM that he'd bring net immigration down to the tens of thousands; from the European Union alone we've had 183,000 more coming to the UK than leaving in the last year.
The Conservatives' immigration policy is a disaster. But Cameron persists in using dehumanising language about immigrants. The government continues treating people who deserve to be allowed to stay in the UK like dirt. Do they seriously think the British people won't see through their squalid actions? Have they no shame?
Sadly, I think they don't. Uncontrolled mass immigration will continue. It will continue to drive down workers' wages in the UK. They'll continue to try to prove that we're an uncaring, immoral, inhumane nation by exploiting the vulnerable.
There's a better way, a way that involves protecting the innocent and targeting the guilty. A way that involves being humane but protecting our borders and getting immigration under control. A way that involves ending the discrimination between EU and non-EU workers, and having a fair points-based system for all to make sure our economy gets the skills that it needs. The only catch? Cameron can't go for it: he's committed to staying in the European Union at any cost.