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There may be one significant difference between the Obama administration’s policy towards illegal immigrants and the Trump administration’s policy. Apparently, it’s the number of reporters on the border. Liberal criticisms of the Obama-era policy toward unlawful migrants are quite surprising. In fact, the critiques are eerily similar to the charges that people are making against Trump on this same issue.
“As a matter of historical record, Barack Obama’s record on immigration was profoundly wretched, especially in his first term.” Leftwing blogger Ryan Cooper wrote this striking comment at The Week.
Obama Administration: The Deporter-In-Chief
Obama’s crackdown on illegal immigration was just as harsh and almost as controversial as Trump’s. Examples of Obama’s immigration policy include:
• Latino USA dubbed Obama “the Deporter in Chief” because of the number of people he deported.
• The Nation, a liberal magazine, ran this headline: “Why Has President Obama Deported More Immigrants than Any President in US History?” in 2014.
• “Since taking the Presidential oath of office, Obama has deported immigrants at a faster rate than any other president in US history, nearly a record two million people,” a 2014 Nation article stated.
• The Obama administration imprisoned 30,000 immigrants on a typical a day.
• “One-quarter of all deportees are separated from their US citizen children and countless others from spouses and other family members.” Alejandra Marchevsky and Beth Baker wrote this about the Obama immigration policy in The Nation.
• “Most deportees never see an attorney or have a hearing before a judge before they are expelled from the country,” the same article stated in 2014.
• The Obama Administration aggressively deported immigrants labeled terrorists and criminals. The administration did this even when it was clear to them that the foreigners posed no danger.
• “We try to focus our enforcement efforts on illegal immigrants who pose a direct threat to our communities, not to hardworking immigrant families who are minding their own business and often have members of their family who are already US citizens,” Obama told Univision, a Spanish language TV network, in 2012.
• The Obama administration encouraged local police to work with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the FBI. Obama instructed them to join in efforts to target terrorists and “criminal aliens” in a policy of “smart enforcement.”
• In 2012, the Obama Administration deported Victoria Escobar, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. They displaced her because a court had convicted her of shoplifting in Virginia. Escobar had three U.S. born children.
• “In the case of Muslim immigrants, the immigration system routinely casts them as would-be terrorists, monitoring and scrutinizing them accordingly.” The Nation wrote this regarding the Obama Justice Department.
In short, the double standard that the media applies between the Trump and Obama administrations is abundantly clear. It’s a double standard that will continue to become all the more evident as the political divide in America deepens.
You may also enjoy reading an additional Off The Grid News article: What The Bible Really Says About Immigration
What are your thoughts on the Obama administration keeping things secret about immigration? Let us know in the comments below.
