For several years, those following immigration policy have been perplexed by seemingly contradictory events. While President Obama has been dismantling most immigration enforcement and putting into place a massive amnesty for two million illegal aliens, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been claiming that deportations are increasing to all-time highs. How can this be true?
The simple answer is that it isn’t true. Deportations are decreasing and the administration has been fudging the numbers.
Last year, FAIR looked at who was being deported and discovered that while more illegal aliens with criminal histories were being removed, the share of non-criminal illegal aliens being removed had decreased.
Now, thanks to the investigative work of Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) we learn that the total number of deportations – including both criminal and non-criminal – is falling as well. The reason is that DHS has revised their definition of what constitutes a “removal” and developed a new trick for keeping track.
Smith explains, “Since 2011, the Obama administration has included numbers from a Border Patrol program that returns illegal immigrants to Mexico right after they cross the Southwest border in their year-end deportation statistics. It is dishonest to count illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the border as ICE removals. And these ‘removals’ from the Border Patrol program do not subject the illegal immigrant to any penalties or bars for returning to the U.S. This means a single illegal immigrant can show up at the border and be removed numerous times in a single year – and counted each time as a removal.”
The accounting is deceptive, yet obviously self-serving. After all, any little leaguer could trump Hank Aaron’s RBI record in baseball provided they simply took it upon themselves to redefine what constitutes a major league RBI.
Properly accounted for by using an apples-to-apples comparison, the Obama deportation numbers reflect quite a different story (see graph).
Deportations began rising under President Bush in 2007 (only after he finally began taking enforcement seriously and was rebuffed for trying to enact amnesty) and continued into Obama’s first year in office. But Obama cannot claim credit even for that. The brief increase was the result of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens put in proceedings under Bush. This “pipeline” of cases carried over into the Obama administration. After the initial rise, deportations have fallen.
Year Total
2007: 291,060
2008: 369,221
2009: 389,834
2010: 392,862
2011: 360,000
2012 263,000 (Year to Date)
2012 315,000 (Year End Estimate)
The President has been able to hide his non-enforcement policies behind a thinly veiled claim of increased deportations which has helped him play both sides of the fence. For special interests demanding amnesty, he’s dismantled most interior enforcement and put into place guidelines to grant millions of illegal aliens deferred action. For those wanting some semblance of enforcement – a rule of law – he’s fabricated a thinly veiled claim of increased deportations.
Since that ruse is now over, we wonder what will be the new “yes, but” arguments made by this administration and amnesty groups desperate to have something with which to sugarcoat their bitter pill of amnesty while they continue gutting the orderly administration of immigration laws.
7 Comments
When anyone begins that process of manipulation, and you catch them twice, you should move away from them and watch them carefully when they are around. Was it a manipulation? Yes. On that issue it could not be anything else.
I feel really sad when I say this, but I am counting the days until the election and worry about the remaining days he is President of the United States. But I thoroughly agree with Rose boyter and while a new President could do a great deal to reduce the problems we face, I am not at all sure they will ‘see’ the problems of over population, pollution, diminishing economic positions for almost everyone coming forward from their youth. We needed to expect that, but Congress has not looked, and mitigation will not happen.
Trying to find anyone that tells the truth in the Obama administration, is like trying to pick FLY CRAP out of pepper dam near impossible. I have come to believe the old saying,” if their lips move their lying” The man himself is the most untruthful person to have held the office of the President.
An idea, maybe we could help america recover, allow the illegals to stay and deport The Obama family, his 50 plus czars, Pelosi, Reid , Boehner, McConnel and any other active democrats and RINOs. That way with a real government back in place, America would have a chance to rebuild.
Now you are getting the picture, well said and I agree whole heartedly….
I’ve been saying this all along. Prior to the Obama Admin. coming into power, previous administrations were classifying removals in two sections. “Deportations” were assigned to those illegal aliens who were apprehended “in country”, processed through the legal system and deported. Those illegal aliens who were apprehended along the borders by Border Patrol agents and returned immediately were classified as “VR’s” (Voluntary Returns) and were separately classified.
When Obama got into office, they combined both classifications and called them all “Deportations”, falsely or misleadingly upping the numbers of “deportations”. Just a numbers game, folks, to make the Obama Admin look good.
I don’t think Boehner is in that Group. Other than that, I agree with Lucky 3511 and also dred 44.
Rose
We are over populated. We are in serious debt. Americans are getting the shaft. Politicians are not interested in us. They need the votes and both presidential candidates are singing the same song. Let them in. Americans will pay for their education, social security, medical expenses, rent, food etc. Let the Americans suffer. Where can they go? Who will take them in and give them freebees?
Who will we vote for? We are the prisoners.