MESSY

Report: Trump Deportations Trail Obama-Era Levels

New data show increase in deportation orders but failure to enforce them in immigration courts.

Despite President Trump’s promises to speed up deportations amid his immigration crackdown, federal authorities are removing undocumented people at a much slower rate than they did even during President Obama’s slowest years, Politico reports. New data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cited by Politico on Tuesday shows a total of 84,473 people being deported from Feb. 1 to June 30 this year, which breaks down to about 16,900 a month. Under Obama in 2016, an average of 20,000 people were removed each month, while in 2012 about 34,000 people were deported monthly. The data also showed that while deportation orders have increased under Trump—with 31 percent more in the first six months of this year than in the same period last year—backlogged immigration courts struggle to enforce the orders, according to The Washington Post.