While Complaining about Trump’s Intention to Deport Immigrants, Don’t Forget Obama Did the Same!

Deportations of illegal immigrants increased in each of the first four years of President Obama was in the office. Illegal immigrants with a criminal history were the priority for deportation. That said, the deportation peaked in 2012 and have declined since. Obama faced the same problems that Trump is still about to deal with; limited resources to track absolutely every illegal immigrant and deport him/her and, frankly, it’s a complicated process as immigrants come from different countries who may or may not deal with all sorts of crisis situations or have complicated relationship with the United States.

 In 2014, he famously said: “Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom that’s working hard to provide for her kids. If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported.”


 The purpose of this text isn’t to start a debate on whether the deportation of illegal immigrants is right or wrong, but to highlight something that is in every president’s “job description”. While mainstream media try to portray Trump as the new Hitler who wants to ban certain people from his country in a bid to create a homogenous environment, the reality is much different. While Donald Trump hasn’t even spent a full business day in the White House, we constantly see the reports that portray the president-elect as a xenophobe while the plans for the new administration’s moves regarding this issue aren’t even revealed just yet.