Deportations spiked during President Obama’s first term. The issue was so serious we were inundated with cases of migrants fighting deportation.
As Obama’s term comes to an end, deportation of undocumented immigrants is at a nine-year low. That’s not so say no migrants are fighting deportation. We have documented operations to send young undocumented immigrants back to Central America.
A recent article in Las Vegas Review-Journal stated levels of deportation of undocumented immigrants is now at a nine-year low nationally. They are not expected to spike again unless the presidential elections in November result in U.S. immigration policy taking a different direction. This could certainly happen if the Republican nominee Donald Trump makes it into the White House.
It’s a far cry from the first term of the Obama administration. The president earned himself the “deporter-in-chief” label, only losing it in 2014 when he triggered executive action to prevent the removal of millions of illegal immigrants without criminal records.
Thousands Were Fighting Deportation in 2012
During his first term, Obama’s administration deported a record number of undocumented immigrants. In 2012 the policy reached its peak when 409,849 were deported. However, removals fell significantly in three years and were down to 235,413 in 2015 – the lowest figure since 2006.
The government has cited improvements in border control. An improvement in the economic climate in Mexico and a decrease in violence in many areas may also have deterred the flood of migrants to the U.S. Meanwhile, the Mexican government is deporting many Central Americans arrivals before they even reach the U.S. border.
While Obama’s deferred action proposals may have impacted the decline in deportations, it’s worth noting that most of those sent back have criminal records. They would not have benefitted from the executive orders that stalled in the Supreme Court.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal article stated that more than 90 percent of the 69,478 people deported from the interior of the US in fiscal 2015, had criminal records.
At Peek Law Group , we help people who are fighting deportation. We can conduct a vigorous deportation defense by filing for cancellation of removal. We recently fought a successful action for an undocumented Mexican national who has four children in the United States.
If you are fighting deportation, you don’t need to do it alone. Call our Texas immigration lawyers at (512) 399-2311.