Obama or Romney: Who Would Deport More People?

Slate explores the issue. On the one hand, President Obama has spent much of his first term trying to prove to the extreme right wingers (who would never in a million years vote for him) that he's as tough on illegal immigration as any President before him. On the other side is the Mitt Romney of the primaries who tried to run to the right of the already very anti-immigration group of candidates in the GOP field. Obama has more effectively walked it back especially with DACA and prosecutorial discretion. Romney's recent remark that he has no plans to deport everyone is harder to believe since he's still surrounding himself with people like Kris K(?) Kobach and Representative Steve King.

Comments

[Debby Cincotti de Covarrubia]

There is no more dangerous person to a detainee than Obama. He is the one holding the record of deporting more people than any other president. At least with Romney we have a mixed bag of possible things he MIGHT do as opposed to what this DEPORTER IN CHIEF has done in four years. If Obama is re-elected he will do exactly what he has done for is first term.....throw an occasional BONE to the thousands of people praying for relief....only problem is that its only ONE bone and there are thousands going after that ONE SMALL BONE!

[Matthew Kolken]

The Obama administration is currently gaming the deportation statistics by deporting individuals without affording them the opportunity to defend removal in the context of an immigration court hearing. Moreover, the administration is withholding full deportation statistics to hide the true number of removals.

See http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/291/

If you think the numbers will drop in an Obama term two, think again, as the number of pending deportation cases keep rising: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/286/

Couple that with the fact that there is a hiring freeze that has resulted in a shortage of immigration judges, and there is an anticipated 8 judges set to retire at the end of this year, Obama is well on his way to matching his own yearly deportation record with pending cases alone.

See: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/286/include/pendingG.html

Anyone that cares about immigration reform, and immigrant rights that places a vote for Obama is simply voting for the Democratic candidate because he has a D after his name and not an R. Sugarcoat it any way you want but this is the cold hard truth.

It doesn't help matters when AILA has become the immigration wing of the Obama reelection public relations team, and we have our leadership calling the current policies "smart immigration enforcement" when the statistics reveal that less than 2% of all reviewed cases are receiving a favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

See: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/287/

Moreover, the current DACA program is filled with landmines and ethical pitfalls, confers no lawful status, and is revocable at any time for any reason, or no reason.

So, to answer your question, who would deport more people: given the currently available resources, it is virtually impossible to beat Obama's deportation record.

The only person that will be able to do it is Obama himself, as the deportations you will see in 2013 already have Obama's stamp of approval.

[Another Voice]

"That is why it is not in the best interest of the Dems to support CIR. The moment the Hispanics get CIR, they will walk away from the Dems and vote GOP based on "values"."

There is data to suggest that Latinos are not as traditional as conservative groups are... they tend to be more tolerant. Plus if you take Prop 187 as an example it will take a loooooong time for the Repuks to undo the damage they have done to themselves with that group.

[George Chell]

"If you take immigration off the table then you can compete for Latinos in the economy, social issues etc....if they do not come to that conclusion, then we only have more of the same regardless."

That is why it is not in the best interest of the Dems to support CIR. The moment the Hispanics get CIR, they will walk away from the Dems and vote GOP based on "values".

[Legal and no longer waiting]

AV, that's pretty typical of people. They don't really hold deep convictions on everything (even thouhg they think so), but rather change their opinion based on other markers they are familiar with, like party affiliation.

[Another Voice]

Rural Republicans In Colorado Don't Know They Agree With Democrats On Immigration: Poll

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/25/rural-republicans-in-colo_n_1914378.html?utm_hp_ref=latino-voices&ir=Latino%20Voices

[Another Voice]

Romney owes the far right favors he would just maintain the status quo at best and continue to let states run wild. Obama and the dems would want to do something but it does not look like the dems will recapture the house so we will find ourselves right where we are today with Lamar Smith heading Immigration in the house. I would say that unless the retardicans realize if the loose huge in November that their only chance to win in the future with the current demographics of the country is to give Obama CIR. If you take immigration off the table then you can compete for Latinos in the economy, social issues etc....if they do not come to that conclusion, then we only have more of the same regardless.