Issues & Insights
Image generated by AI

A Tale Of Two Presidents’ Deportation Records

With their party dragging itself through an existential struggle, Democrats, with of course help from the media, have made the president’s illegal immigrant deportations their raison de etre. They’ve turned to tantrum-laced political theater and seasoned it with a mountain of hypocrisy.

This year’s George Floyd (or Michael Brown) for the Democrats is Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran and alleged MS-13 gang member who was sent back to his home country. His case, says the Associated Press, is for Democrats “about fundamental American ideals — due process, following court orders, preventing government overreach.”

Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was speaking, even if unofficially, for the party and the media that does the party’s dirty work when he said in regard to the administration’s deportation policy, that “due process and separation of powers are matters of principle” and “without due process for all, we are all in danger.”

It’s blatantly obvious that Democrats “desperately want to neuter the Trump administration’s right to remove those who have come here illegally, including those who belong to foreign gangs, or commit serious felonies.”

Where were the Democrats and the media when Barack Obama was deporting more than 5 million (including both formal removals and returns), many – maybe even a majority – of whom didn’t get their “day in court”? They were around, but not much was said, certainly not to the level of screeching we’re hearing today. There was no rancor, no childish grandstanding, no rallies on behalf of the deported.

But given the standard set today by the Democrats and the press, there should have been.

In May 2014, as Obama’s presidency was winding down, the American Civil Liberties Union asked:

“When removing individuals from this country – permanently severing them from their homes, families, and community – which is more important: fairness or speed?” 

Answering its own question, the ACLU complained that the Obama administration indeed “prioritized speed over fairness in the removal system, sacrificing individualized due process in the pursuit of record removal numbers.

“A deportation system that herds 75% of people through fast-track, streamlined removal is a system devoid of fairness and individualized due process.”

The ACLU’s commentary appealed to our country’s “proud tradition of individualized due process,” and insisted that “everyone deserves their day in court.”

“This is especially important for immigrants, many of whom might qualify for prosecutorial discretion given their considerable roots in the United States, but who will only get that consideration if a judge can review their individual case and decide whether or not they must leave.”

“Judicial review,” said the organization, “is critical.” “Yet,” the ACLU continued, “alarming new evidence has surfaced that in three out of four removal cases this does not happen at all.”

A Migration Policy Institute report released that same year that the ACLU was highlighting found that “nonjudicial removals accounted for just 3% of removals in the 1990s,” but by 2012 “expedited removal and reinstatements accounted for 75% of all deportations.” It was
“the highest proportion ever.”

Later in 2014, the ACLU mourned for “the ones Obama left behind” and “deported without a chance to be heard.” Then in 2016, the AFL-CIO complained the Obama administration’s “crackdown on immigrants” ignored due process and created “communities filled with fear.” Also in 2016, just days before the election, NBC News published a report on “Obama’s ‘Rocket Docket,'” in which immigration hearings routinely violated due process.

But the Democratic-media rage machine never even got started, not with Obama in the White House nor with Bill Clinton, who of the last three presidents to serve two consecutive terms is the real deporter in chief, with more than 12 million overall deportations, in the land’s highest office.

No, that’s always reserved for Republicans.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

Share

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

3 comments

  • In short, Democrats are against every single thing Trump is for without regard to merit. The only thing they stand for is against Trump and against you.

  • American due process is for American citizens-not for the world populace. Citizens of other nations are neither patriotically-slanted to our country nor have they paid our taxes before illegally entering.
    If the text, which the Founders wrote, were for the whole of the world’s population then the Constitution would apply to the world and would not have been called the Constitution of the United States, which is the official name recognized by National Archives.
    “Due process” was inserted into the Constitution to protect American citizens-both those who break the law and those other citizens of America who are law abiding. Where in this scenario does Garcia belong?
    Garcia illegally entered the US. Thus, he is a criminal-and NOT a citizen. He is a gang member of a vicious foreign gang; and his wife filed charges against him for allegedly beating her. As I mention, even the gang he belongs to is not American.
    In other words, he’s the cream of the crop.
    So send him back to his country of origin (however, I don’t believe Venezuela even want’s him-that’s why he was deported and held in an El Salvador prison) and let them give him “due process.”
    Or let the Democrats throw him a birthday party. And save one of the candles for themselves. After all they gave us this humongous problem of illegal aliens invading this country, with Biden throwing our borders open and Democrats supporting this terribly vicious policy, ignoring all prior laws-including due process for all the American citizenry on the border.
    They are the ones deserving of protection and “due process” from our Courts!
    Trump is solving this problem and still the Democrats cavil and cry.
    Where in the heck are our Due Process rights to be free of these illegal, gang-membering thugs?

  • The recent Trump-initiated deportations of illegals who were encouraged by the Biden administration has given rise to Progressives demanding due process. Their characterization of Trump deportations has led to blatant lies about due process. There are many exceptions to a full court hearing where due process is applied such as the Expedited Removal process enacted in 1996 (the Illegal Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 that was expanded in 2002 and 2004.) The expedited deportation order is entered by a low-level officer without a hearing, even by an immigration judge and certainly not a Federal District Court Article III judge. It applies to any illegal who entered the U.S: 1) without inspection, 2) never admitted or paroled, and 3) cannot prove they have been in the country for more than two years. Despite the dizzyingly complicated entire deportation process, during President Obama’ first term, in 1998 alone, close to 200,000 illegals were summarily deported without due process. These summary procedures of illegals were fifty percent of all deportation orders for removal in that year. The Biden administration intentionally distorted all existing immigration laws resulting in more than 200,000 Absentia Orders (an order entered after an illegal fails to appear at an INA hearing) were invoked to summarily deport illegals.

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by seasoned journalists who were behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning IBD Editorials page (before it was summarily shut down). Our goal then and now is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. I&I is a completely independent operation, beholden to none, but committed to providing cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that the nation so desperately needs. 

Share

Discover more from Issues & Insights

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading