From Obama, Trump Will Inherit an Efficient Deportation Apparatus

Paste – By Adriana Maestas

President Obama has deported over 2.5 million people through 2014, the last year that government data is available. This number represents about a 25% increase from what President George W. Bush was able to accomplish. The total number of people deported under the Obama administration might have reached more than three million assuming that the rate of deportations has remained steady since 2014.

In immigration circles, Obama has deservedly earned the nickname “Deporter in Chief,” although he did issue an executive action to prevent some undocumented young people who meet certain criteria from being deported under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). While Donald Trump has only talked about wanting to deport millions of undocumented people, the Obama administration has actually carried out what the legislative branch has authorized the Department of Homeland Security to do.

Donald Trump  has said that he wants to keep his campaign promise to be tough on immigration and recently said that he would deport two to three million people immediately. The President-elect started his campaign with blatant lies calling immigrants from Mexico rapists and criminals, even though data shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than native-born Americans.

Given that the immigrant community has felt like it has been under siege for over a decade with the tough immigration enforcement bill that was passed in the House (Sensenbrenner) and was later defeated in the Senate back in early 2006 to the record-breaking deportations in the Obama administration, activists are gearing up for the next round of battles in the new Trump administration. I was able to speak with grassroots activists who have been involved in immigration battles for several years in cities throughout the country who shared their thoughts about how to move forward.

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