Removing illegal immigrants from the country is not a new idea hatched by the Trump Administration. You wouldn't know it, judging by today's news coverage. Few, if any, Americans know a 1995 law signed by Democrat President Bill Clinton paved the way for millions of deportations and removals.
Bipartisan legislation known as The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act green lighted the removal of illegals. Under Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Barrack Obama there were 27 million illegal immigrants ushered out of the United States.
Likely, you are shaking your head. That number--27 million--can't be accurate. You won't find it in reporting by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC. Those media hide behind bogus fact-checkers to claim the number is inflated. But it's not.
The legacy media cabal claim the past "removals" data cannot be equated with Trump's deportations. Fact checkers parse the word "due process" to argue previous administrations did not ignore the Constitution to send illegal immigrants out of the country.
The truth is illegal immigrants were deported under previous presidents, regularly without hearings. Whether you use the term "removals" or "deportations," the outcome was the same. Semantics aside, illegals were sent out of the country at the border and from the country's interior.
Also, illegal immigrants who lived in the U.S. for 365 days or more were required to remain outside the country for ten years, unless they obtained a waiver. The act allowed the deportation of illegal immigrants who committed a misdemeanor or a felony. Those who overstayed visas could be removed.
Raise your hand if you knew about these provisions. Even fewer Americans know that many of the bill's provisions remain in force today. The Biden Administration chose to ignore the law, inviting in at least 10 million illegal immigrants to waltz into the country, while lying that the border was secure.
Other Democrat presidents and President Bush viewed illegal immigration differently than Biden.
Under Clinton, 12 million illegals were either deported, removed or returned during his two terms. The terminology doesn't matter. The fact is 11.4 million of those illegals were apprehended at the border and were given the choice: return to Mexico or face formal deportation hearings. Most returned to Mexico.
During the Bush Administration, more than 10 million illegals were sent out of the country. A large majority of those immigrants--8.3 million--were stopped at the border and returned to Mexico. About 1.6 million were deported over eight years.
The data for Bush and Clinton removals and deportations comes from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The number of deportations ratcheted up during President Obama's eight years in office. Between 2009 and 2012 the administration deported 1.6 million illegal immigrants, according to Pew Research. Of those, Pew found that 690,000 had criminal records. The final tally under Obama was 5 million.
Obama defenders prefer to point out that as president he signed an executive order in 2012 protecting certain young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from temporarily being deported. However, Obama's action was at least partly in response to criticism from some in his party.
Immigration activists labeled Obama the "Deporter In Chief" for his rapid removal of illegal immigrants.
For the record, Obama officials deportation priorities were national security threats; noncitizens convicted of three or more misdemeanors or one serious crime; those who abused visa or visa waiver programs. DHS also targeted illegals who had a pending removal issue on or before January 1, 2014, but had remained in the country.
A Democrat untruth is that every illegal immigrant received their day in court under Obama. Not according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Here's what the ACLU posted on its website during the Obama years:
"The reality is that this (Obama) Administration has increasingly relied on methods, such as expedited removal and reinstatements of old decisions, which bypass a judicial hearing where a judge can consider U.S. ties and individuals circumstances and also fail to offer basic protections like notice to counsel."
Obama also had the cooperation of local police in cities. His DHS department asked local police to hold an immigrant already in custody for forty-eight hours to give the feds can opportunity to place the migrant into deportation proceedings or take the individual into custody.
Given recent history, the Democrat hysterics and borderline delirium over current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and deportations are hypocrisy. There is very little daylight between the Trump Administration's deportation priorities and those of Obama.
What's changed is the name of the president. Obama deported more noncitizens than any president in U.S. history. Mayors didn't threaten DHS agents. No Congressmen or women demanded to peek inside detention centers. No federal judges halted deportations for lack of due process. There were no riots.
Moreover, the Border Patrol under Obama put children in detention centers , encircled by razor-wire fences. Here's what the Arizona Republic wrote at the time:
"But they are still children in cages, not delinquents. Just children, 900 of them, in a makeshift border town center that is longer than a football field." Similar articles appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. When Trump later used the same detention centers, he was skewered.
Criticize President Trump's deportations if you wish. But what the administration is doing is not beyond the norm of previous Democrat presidents. Some may suggest that the Trump plan includes deporting non-criminals or individuals who have been in the country for years but are not citizens.
It is beyond naive to claim that under Obama there were no such instances. There was no oversight by Congress or the media.
What America is dealing with today goes beyond what Obama faced. Former President Biden created a nightmare immigration scenario that undid decades of immigration policies aimed at protecting the country. He and his administration deserve the blame for the current chaos.
The immigration issue was at least partly responsible for Americans voting for Donald Trump. Democrats ceded the high ground on illegal immigration during the last four years. Their current faux outrage and performative protests are nothing more than political theater.
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