NDN Defends Obama’s Deportation Record

Wall Street Journal

By Laura Meckler

April 9, 2014

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/04/09/ndn-defends-obamas-deportation-record/?mod=wsj_nview_latest

The Obama administration is under fire from immigration activists for its record-high deportations. But one Democratic think tank is defending the administration, arguing that an alternate look at immigration enforcement shows the overall numbers are dropping.

NDN, in a memo being released Thursday, totaled the number of both “removals,” when individuals are deported from the country, and “returns,” when they are turned back at the border without a formal deportation process. Analyzed in this manner, the total number has fallen over the course of the Obama administration. That’s because while more people have been removed, returns have dropped dramatically.

The numbers cited are not new or surprising to people who track immigration, but the memo shows how political the issue of deportations has become. At the moment, there are few people on the political left or right who are eager to defend Mr. Obama or his deportation policies.

In 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, there were nearly 360,000 removals and more than 800,000 returns for a total of 1.17 million actions. By 2012, there were nearly 420,000 removals, the report said, but only 229,968 returns, for a total of just under 650,000.

NDN cited statistics from the Department of Homeland Security’s annual yearbook.

Some conservatives have pointed to these numbers to argue that President Barack Obama isn’t as tough on illegal immigrants as some have said. But this defense comes from a fellow Democrat in response to attacks on Mr. Obama from the immigration rights community that he is too tough.

“Those who argue that Obama is deporter-in-chief, removing more people than anyone in history, are wrong,” said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN.

The number of returns have dropped for a variety of reasons. Fewer people have attempted to cross the southern U.S. border due to an uptick in the Mexican economy and the economic downturn in the U.S. Tougher border security and drug-cartel violence also have deterred some would-be crossers. And immigration authorities are now placing many illegal crossers who are arrested in formal deportation proceedings rather than just returning them to Mexico.

Frank Sharry, a leading immigration advocate who heads the group America’s Voice, said the statistics on fewer returns mean little to the overall immigration debate.

“Fewer people have tried to come to the U.S. than during the Bush years,” he said. “You can’t remove those who don’t come.”

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