The record number of deportations that the Obama administration has reached in recent years has earned the President numerous criticisms, who was thought to be one of the main promoters of long awaited immigration reform, which is still stuck in the House of Representatives.
Despite the President saying that most of the deportations are based on the expelling of criminals, the figures offered by various studies on Department of Homeland Security figures seems to prove otherwise.
According to a report published by The New York Times, of the almost 2 million deportations registered during the Obama administration, 66 percent of them are related to people accused of misdemeanors, such as traffic violations.
These figures contradict the president's statements and the posture of migration authorities, especially taking into account that of the total amount of deportations, less than 20 percent were people detained for serious crimes, among which are sale and distribution of narcotics.
According to La Opinión, Obama's administration is the one with the most deportations in the last decades, thanks to a series of mechanisms which guarantee the application of programs to expel undocumented immigrants.
Another thing which has caught the attention of defenders of immigrant rights is that there are drastically less attempts to return, in relation to the U.S. economy: record numbers in times of economic stability, and lower figures during recession.
The main worry is still the amount of deportations, a number which affects people without a criminal record more and more. According to the NYT, the new measures imposed during Obama's administration have harshly punished immigrants who did not have a criminal record.
Most of these people are barred from attempting to return to the U.S. for five years, something very unusual in previous administrations and which has caused the discontent of organizations defending immigrant rights, groups which supported Obama's campaign.
"In reality, this government, more than any other, has devastated immigrant communities throughout the country, families have been torn apart from their loved ones just because they were driving without a license or because they came back, desperate to reunite with their families," Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Laws Center, told the Times.