Last year saw the highest numbers of deported immigrants, but regardless of such figures, an Axios report shows that the Obama administration’s deportation levels were still higher than those of the current administration.
Under Obama’s administration, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials deported over 385,000 each year between fiscal 2009 and 2011, reaching its top in 2012 with 409,849 deportations, Department of Homeland Security data shows.
Although these figures saw a significant drop between 2015 and 2016 to about 250,000, at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s term in office, they decreased even further. In fiscal 2017, these numbers fell to 226,119, marking a slight rise in the following two years, with 250,000 and 282,242 deportations in 2018 and this fiscal year, respectively.
Immigration has been a key issue for the current president ever since his presidential campaign. He has repeatedly promised to deport illegal migrants, culminating in his Monday tweet that “millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States” will be arrested by ICE.
“They will be removed as fast as they come in,” he continued.
But Axios adds that Trump’s pledge is notably ambitious, considering the lack of staffing, funding and detention beds, as well as resources at the agency’s disposal.
Acting ICE Director Mark Morgan said shortly after President Trump’s tweet that ICE did not “have the resources to deport, you know, 11 million people in a short period of time.”
Moreover, such a move would certainly cause outrage, the outlet also writes.
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