Obama did better than Trump on removals; Indians more affected during Trump years

Obama did better on removals than Trump

The number of people removed by the US authorities was higher during Barrack Obama’s second term in office compared with Donald Trump’s first term, a Moneycontrol analysis of data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office shows.

While the ICE carried out 1.16 million removals during Obama’s second term from September 2013 to September 2016, Trump’s term witnessed the removal of 935,346 persons from the US between 2017 and 2020.

The number of removals dipped during the two Covid years but rose again during Joe Biden’s last two years in office.

In his first few hours in office, Donald Trump signed a series of executive actions ordering a crackdown on illegal immigration.

There were 11 million immigrants in the US, as per a Pew Research Centre study, with Indians accounting for the third largest group at 725,000 immigrants.

Bloomberg on January 21 reported that India and the US have identified some 18,000 illegal Indian migrants in the US to be sent back home.

Data shows that Indians were worst afflicted during Trump’s first term in office as well.

While an average of 340 Indians were removed during Obama’s years, Trump’s term witnessed the number rise to 1,250 per year.

Trump removed twice as many more people than Biden did during the four years of his first term.

Between 2020-2024, Indians were the largest group of people arrested by immigration offices outside of South American nations and also accounted for most detentions outside of the Americas and the Caribbean.