Not George Bush or Donald Trump: This is the U.S. president who deported the most illegal immigrants

Donald Trump has promised to remove millions upon millions of undocumented immigrants in what he says will be “the largest deportation program in American history.” He has unleashed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on communities across the nation and ordered other law enforcement and government agencies to assist in the task.

According to the White House, ICE has arrested over 100,000 people suspected of violating immigration law from the day Trump was inaugurated to the first week of June. Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, said in late May that roughly double that number had been deported during the first four months of the Trump administration.

However, despite these numbers Trump’s efforts are lagging behind previous administrations and will likely not be able to surpass the record number of deportations set by the president who earned the title “the deporter in chief” from immigration advocates.

The real ‘deporter in chief’

During two terms in office, the administration of former President Barack Obama formally removed over 3 million noncitizens, which earned him the moniker “the deporter in chief.” The Trump administration during his first four years in office deported just over a third of that amount.

According to Department of Homeland Security data he holds the record for the year with the most deportations, with 434,015 unauthorized immigrants removed from the US in 2013. The highest number of deportations under Trump so far was six years later in 2019 when over 347,000 people were removed from the US.

When combining removals, deportations, and returns, where people who illegally cross the border are detained and sent back, the record holder is former President Bill Clinton with over 12.3 million people.

Under George W Bush, during his eight years in office, the combined number was 10.3 million people, and under Obama over 5.2 million. Between 2017 and 2020 the Trump administration removed or returned less than 1.8 million.

Why was Obama able to deport so many people

Obama’s record was aided by a couple of factors. Firstly, the tools that had been authorized in 1996 were finally fully deployed and funded under Bush, especially in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Also formal removal proceedings were ramped up instead of letting those who crossed the border illegally voluntarily return back across the border. This helped deter repeated attempts to cross the border. A first offence results in a ten-year ban from entering the US and a second a lifetime ban.

Obama also had the Secure Communities program at his disposal designed to target criminals for deportation. Under the program local law enforcement shared fingerprints of those booked into jails with federal authorities to see if they matched criminal and immigration databases.

It had been rolled out under his predecessor but became fully functional by 2013. However, the program was shutdown in 2014 after blowback from liberal jurisdictions and concerns that it would make everyone less safe.

The fear was that trust in law enforcement would drop among immigrant communities and they would be less likely to report crimes. It was also leading to the deportation of people with minor offences and no criminal record. The Obama administration changed priorities to target serious criminals instead.

Vox points to this as one of the reasons the Trump White House will have difficulty matching Obama’s numbers. Were Trump to attempt to revive the program he would surely face serious opposition especially in Democratic strongholds.

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