Adam Serwer, in a blog entry at Mother Jones, uses surprising statistics to debunk the myth about President Barack Obama's immigration policy that accuses him of "backdoor amnesty" and of holding the border hostage.
On September 9, I wrote that the Obama administration, based on statistics from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was nearing its millionth deportation. It seems I was only about three days off. According to Reuters, the administration hit that milestone on September 12. How does that compare with Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush? The answer, if you've been hearing Republicans accuse Obama of "backdoor amnesty" and holding the border hostage, may surprise you.
"The Obama administration had deported about 1.06 million as of September 12, against 1.57 million in Bush's two full presidential terms."
That's right, Obama is on the verge of deporting more undocumented immigrants in a single term than Bush did his full eight years in office.
Despite the administration's stated focus on unauthorized immigrants with criminal records, more than half of those deported had no criminal records, 54 percent to 46 percent. But that number doesn't convey what percentage of removals categorized as criminal include serious or violent offenses as opposed to minor ones.
Read Adam Serwer’s entire blog entry at Mother Jones.