An illuminating story in Monday’s LA Times points to a meeting the president had in June with two refugees as the reason for increased refugee admissions. Now, the reporters may be wrong about the causation, but it rings true, highlighting a serious problem in the president’s (and many other people’s) decision-making on immigration, i.e., it is driven by little more than personal anecdotes and experiences. Anecdotes can, of course, be a useful marketing tool, but the measure being considered ought to be sound in its own right. In this instance, our refugee resettlement program is a mess, riddled with greed and political gimmicks, admitting the mediagenic while the truly desperate languish. More broadly, an immigration policy driven by anecdotes (“All the immigrants I know are hard workers,” “Look at all the immigrant entrepreneurs,” “Oh, the restaurants!”) results in unfortunate consequences no one expected because no one took the time to think it through.