While many Democrats have expressed dissatisfaction with President-elect Donald Trump's plans to carry out mass deportations during his second term, some commentators have criticized former President Barack Obama's plans to carry out millions of deportations. It is pointed out that he even earned the title of “Secretary of Overseas Transport.''
On Tuesday's “Faulkner Focus” show, Fox host Sandra Smith said that while Democrats are “committed to opposing Trump's deportation plan,” they “haven't heard much about this. “The former president was called the 'deportation manager,'” he said. That's because he deported approximately 5.3 million illegal aliens during his two terms in office. ”
“That's better than Trump, so why resist this time?” Smith asked.
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Former President Barack Obama (left) and President-elect Donald Trump.
According to data collected by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), President Obama oversaw approximately 5,248,413 returns and deportations of illegal immigrants during his eight years in office.
From 2009 to 2012, President Obama's DHS conducted approximately 3,175,696 returns and expulsions during his first term alone.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration conducted approximately 1,795,888 returns and removals during its first term, which was 1 million fewer than during the Obama administration's first term.
Returns and deletions slumped during the first two years under President Biden, but have since started to recover. There were 700,000 returns and expulsions of illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2024, more than any year since 2010, according to DHS data.
This comes after the Biden administration set a record for the most illegal crossings in a year with 2,475,669 encounters at the Southwest border in 2023. Since President Biden took office, there have been more than 7 million border encounters along the Southwest border.
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An aerial view of Texas National Guard soldiers watching over 1,000 migrants cross the Rio Grande from Mexico overnight in Eagle Pass, Texas, on December 18, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)
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Jessica Vaughn, director of policy research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said deportations increased under the Obama administration because there were more illegal immigrants.
“Why were returns and deportations higher under the Obama administration? Simply put, illegal immigration increased significantly under the Obama administration, and domestic enforcement was much stronger during the Obama administration's first term. ” she said. “The peak of domestic enforcement was the last year of the Bush administration and the first year of Obama. Then, under the Obama administration, the president made decisions and certain policies were issued to reduce internal affairs enforcement. This can be tracked through.
But Vaughn also cautioned against reading too much into DHS' returns and removals numbers without understanding the context. He said the lines of what counts as deportation further blurred in 2012 when the Obama administration began counting Border Patrol removals the same as ICE removals.
He said there was a “certain amount of cancellation” under the Obama administration because “President Obama wants to convey to people that enforcement is very strong, even if it's not actually very strong.” That's because he was thinking that.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista, Arizona, on August 22, 2024. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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“Previously, removals were typically carried out inland and returns were carried out by the Border Patrol. However, under the Obama administration, policy changed and Border Patrol was used as a means to impose further sanctions on illegal border crossers. “We've had some removals done,” she said. “This is a sharp increase in expulsions under President Obama. Under the Bush administration, one-third of expulsions were border incidents and two-thirds were domestic incidents. Under Obama, three-thirds of expulsions were domestic. Two of the incidents occurred at the border, and only one-third occurred domestically.Thus, these numbers are interesting.However, they mask some important policy differences between the administrations. .”
There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States, but President Trump and his “border czar,” former Acting ICE Director Tom Homan, are working to eliminate illegal immigrants. He vowed to take all necessary measures, including declaring a national emergency and committing military resources. From the country. They said they would start with those deemed to be a risk to public safety.
