Numbers don’t tell the whole story when comparing deportations under the Trump and Obama administrations because Obama’s three million deportations occurred over a seven-year period, whereas Trump’s 1.5 million took place over three years. What tells the story are the differences in criticism.
Data from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics show that from the fiscal years of 2009 to 2016, 3,062,466 removals occurred, with over 1.5 million of them occurring during Obama’s first term.
The department defines removals as “the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States based on an order of removal.”
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The data shows 1,528,758 removals occurred between 2017 and 2020 under Trump’s first term. Information up to 2022 is the most recent information available in the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.
Trump’s first-term deportation record appears nearly on par with Obama’s first term, coming in at a difference of over 39,000. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Tampa Free Press that over 100,000 deportations have taken place since Trump’s second inauguration.
“Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, we have arrested over 145,000 illegal aliens, and have deported over 130,000,” the DHS said in a statement to the Tampa Free Press.
Pushback against the Trump administration has been seen recently in South Texas, New York, and Colorado, with judges halting deportations temporarily, Fox News reported.
Trump additionally faces several active lawsuits against his deportation policy, including the case WMM v. Trump, which alleges the government violated the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) when removing over 100 Venezuelan noncitizens.
The lawsuit alleges “These individuals were sent to this brutal prison without any court having had an opportunity to review the threshold questions of whether a criminal gang can be deemed a ‘foreign government or nation’ within the meaning of the AEA, or whether criminal activity and migration can constitute a military ‘invasion or predatory incursion’ of the ‘ ‘territory of the United States;’ under the Act.”
READ: Attorney General Pam Bondi Slams Federal Judges, Defends Trump’s Use Of Alien Enemies Act
On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for an emergency injunction against the current administration due to the deportation of Venezuelan nationals. The appeal came amid Trump’s use of the AEA, which the Supreme Court has ruled in the past has restrictions on how the government can use the act, Fox News reported.
Reports from the Obama administration reveal that Obama faced his share of criticism and obstacles regarding deportation and immigration. House Democrats sounded off on the president’s actions, with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) calling his deportation policy an “unnecessary cruelty,” according to The Hill, and Former Rep. Luis Gutierrez, (D-Ill.) dubbing Obama the “deporter in chief.”
A group of 30 House Democrats endorsed a letter in December 2013 that called upon the administration to end its “aggressive deportation drive,” when the average deportation rate was estimated at 1,100 per day, The Hill reported.
Previous reports show that Obama faced judicial action in his executive orders protecting immigration. In December 2014, a federal judge ruled Obama’s executive order that would spare millions of people from deportation as unconstitutional, according to U.S. News.
“The Executive Action provides for a process by which undocumented immigrants will become quasi-United States citizens,” U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab wrote.
The judge further wrote the executive order would be invalid without the approval of Congress, writing that “the executive order constitutes legislation and that presidents cannot use executive actions to force legislative action,” U.S. News stated.
In November 2015, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked several of Obama’s executive orders on immigration. In Texas v. United States, the court upheld an injunction against the programs Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), created by Obama, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), according to Government Executive.
With Trump’s second term underway, it remains unclear if he will surpass Obama’s numbers and face additional challenges.
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