Right-wing narratives suggest that Democrats are weak on immigration, favor porous borders, and don’t care about immigration-related burdens to American taxpayers. Is it true?
Statement: Donald Trump “deported less, believe it or not, than [Democrat] Barack Obama even did.”
Validity: Correct
In January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, when campaigning for the Republican nomination for president, said he’d deport more illegal immigrants than former President Trump if elected president.
“Trump promised the largest deportations in history,” DeSantis said Jan. 2 during a town hall hosted by Gray Television. “He deported less, believe it or not, than Barack Obama even did.”
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump promised to deport every immigrant living in the U.S. illegally (then estimated to be 11 million people). He failed to do so, earning him a Promise Broken on PolitiFact’s Trump-O-Meter promise tracker.
Obama deported more people than Trump across different deportation metrics. In fact, immigrant rights advocates criticized Obama as the “deporter-in-chief” by the time he left office in 2017.
The federal government tracks deportations, which are the removal of noncitizens from the U. S. This is monitored in several ways.
Removals: People are sent out of the U.S. via an official court order and often penalized for illegal entry. This can involve people who have lived in the United States for years as well as people who recently arrived.
Returns: People are returned to their home countries without legal penalties and without being put through formal removal proceedings. This happens at the border.
Title 42 expulsions: These happened from March 2020 to May 2023 under a public health policy. Some people arriving at the border were not let into the United States and were expelled without legal penalties.
Under Trump, from fiscal year 2017 to 2020, the Department of Homeland Security recorded 2 million deportations, including about four months of the Obama administration in 2017.
Under Obama, there were 3. 2 million deportations from 2009-2012 and 2.1 million from 2013-2016.
These figures encompass deportations of people stopped at the border and those already living in the U. S. who were picked up by immigration authorities.
A DeSantis campaign spokesperson cited a 2020 Cato Institute report supporting DeSantis’ claim. The report showed more ICE deportations under Obama than Trump.
“By any measure, the Trump administration failed to meaningfully increase immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States,” compared with the Obama administration, the report said.
Yes, federal data shows Obama deported more noncitizens than Trump during their respective terms.
Who’s weak on immigration?
Sources
- KEYC News Now, Gray Television Town Hall with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Jan. 2, 2024
- PolitiFact, Donald Trump does not keep promise to deport all immigrants illegally in the US, July 15, 2020
- PolitiFact, The facts behind Joe Biden’s claim on deportations under Obama, March 13, 2020
- PolitiFact, Title 42 expiration: What’s next for migrants applying for asylum at US’ southern border?, May 8, 2023
- Department of Homeland Security, 2022 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, November 2023
- Cato Institute, Interior Immigration Enforcement Has Collapsed Under Trump, Lowest Level Since George W. Bush Administration, Dec. 27, 2020
- Email exchange, Ron DeSantis campaign spokesperson, Jan. 3, 2024
