Cujo
“I've eaten a lot of raccoons."
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
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- 5,617
FACT CHECK: Did Obama Deport More People Than All Previous Presidents Combined? | Check Your Fact
So where was the outrage then, Irv?
Removal orders have historically involved bureaucratic paperwork and backlogged court proceedings run by immigration judges. But a law passed by Congress in 1996 gave immigration authorities more flexibility.
Agents could now issue “expedited removal orders” without the need to go before an immigration judge.
The authority was initially only extended to ports of entry like airports and sea ports, but a regulatory change in 2004 allowed agents to remove new entrants at or near the southern border. President George W. Bush nearly doubled the number of removals from FY 2001 to FY 2008, and Obama continued to issue record numbers of removal orders.
By FY 2013, 44 percent of all removals fell under the “expedited removal” category. The Center for Immigration Studies notes that more than half of the removals attributed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2012 wouldn’t have counted as removals in previous years.
The number of removals also rose due to the creation of DHS in 2002. From 2003 to 2008, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) grew from 10,000 to 17,000 agents, and ICE grew from 2,700 to 5,000 agents. By the time Obama assumed office in 2009, he wielded what the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) has called a “formidable immigration machinery” that would issue up to 434,000 removals a year.
But critics of Obama argue that removal orders paint an incomplete picture of immigration enforcement. Before expedited removals became a popular tool for enforcement, immigration authorities would rely on a less formal method of deportation called a return (formerly known as a “voluntary departure“).
Under a return, immigrants apprehended by agents agree to leave the country before their court cases are settled.
Due to the high volume of border crossers that began in the 1970s and the bureaucratic process of formally removing someone from the country, returns were the primary way in which the government enforced immigration law for many decades.
And illegal immigrants had an incentive to comply – waiting for a formal removal comes with harsher legal consequences if an immigrant attempts to reenter the country at a later date.
So where was the outrage then, Irv?