Claim:
During the administration of US President Barack Obama, immigration authorities deported more than 3 million people, 75% to 83% of whom have not seen a judge or have the opportunity to plead in their case.
Evaluation:
Evaluation: Most of all true
Context:
According to the Department of Internal Security (DHS) from the fiscal years 2009 to 2016, more than 3 million persons were officially removed from the country during the Obama administration. Between 58% and 84% of these removal are the so -called “summary removal” conducted through legal procedures such as “accelerated removal” and “restoration of removal”, which do not include hearing before an immigration judge. On average, about 74% of the removal during this period fell into these categories.
In April 2025, a claim spread to social media that during the US President Barack Obama (2009-2017), immigration authorities deported more than 3 million people, 75% to 83% of whom did not see a judge or were able to plead in their case.
A Facebook Post (S)archived) This included the claim reached over 33,000 reactions, 7,700 Comments and 50,000 shares. She reads:
You know? Obama has been deported by over 3 million people – but 75-83% have never seen a judge or have had the opportunity to plead in their case.
Most were removed by accelerated border processes – there is no court hearing, without process. And this is not unique to Obama. At Clinton and Bush, millions were also deported without judicial supervision.
A proper process? Obviously, only if a Republican or Donald Trump is responsible!So I ask you – where was all the indignation then? Where were the protests against Obama, Clinton or Bush? This is a standard practice for many presidents before Trump. No president in the history of the United States has never been obliged to obtain permission from the courts – or from anyone else – to protect the sovereignty of its own borders.
The post credits Facebook’s information named Michael McKun, stating: “Look at Michael’s wall on Facebook. He is the author of this before being sent to me without a doubt, a well -intentioned person sent me. Michael is an intelligent person with ideas for common sense for our world!”
In fact, this case of rumors, of which many variants have emerged as a result of Trump’s actions, comes from Facebook Post (S)archived) by McCune, published on April 20, 2025 and distribution In numerous social media Platforms including Instagram., Topics., Linkedin., X., Reddit and FacebookS
We contacted McCune to seek clarification on the source of the numbers cited in his post. We will update this article if we receive an answer.
In short, according to the Ministry of Interior Security (DHS) from the fiscal years 2009 to 2016, more than 3 million persons were officially removed during the Obama administration. Including returns, cases in which the non -education has left the United States voluntarily or after the withdrawal of its application, without undergoing official removal procedures, the total number of deviations exceeds 5 million.
The claims that 75% to 83% of the deported “have never seen a judge or have had a chance to plead their case” are based on statistics from individual years, especially 2012 and 2013. These percentages refer to the so -called “generalized removal” through legal procedures such as “accelerated removal”. From 2009 to 2016, these two categories of combination make up between 58% and 84% of all official removal annually, an average of about 74% throughout the period.
Therefore, we appreciate this statement as the most true.
3M deportations during the Obama administration?
Let’s start with unpacking Facebook Post that “over 3 million people were deported to Obama.”
The Institute of Migration Policy, a non -partisan cerebral trust, focused on us and global immigration, explains that “deportation” is a broad, non -technical term relating to the removal of uncutable from the United States, or by officially removing or returning. However, to this text, USA.gov defines the deportation more as “the process of removing non -citizen from the United States for violating immigration law.” Meanwhile, DHS uses the term “repatriation” to describe the sending of an individual to its country to citizenship or to a third country.
Notwithstanding the definition, according to statistics from the US Department of Interior Security (DHS) (for fiscal years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013., 2014, 2015 and 2016), approximately 3.1 million unprecedented ones were officially removed from the United States during the two terms of Barack Obama. This figure is probably what social media publications relate to.
These statistics are based on fiscal years, which last from October 1 to September 30. Therefore, the fiscal 2009 included several months during the term of President George W. Bush (October 1, 2008 – January 19, 2009), although Obama was president in the biggest part of this fiscal year (January 20, 2009 – September 30, 2009). Moreover, fISCAL 2017 began on October 1, 2016, while Obama was still in office, but Donald Trump became president a few months later, in January 2017. For the calculations in this article, we missed data from the fiscal 2017.
The figure of more than 3 million accounts for formal removal alone. A significant number of non -citizens also left the United States through what they were classified as “returns”. According to MPI, the return is “the movement of an unmanagement from the United States on the basis of a permit to withdraw their application for acceptance of the border or a voluntary departure order.” When both official removal and return are included, the total number of deportations during the Obama administration exceeds 5 million.
For more context, see our article that looks at How the figures for deportation during the first Trump term are compared to those of previous presidents.
Source from 75% to 83% statistics
75% number repeated in social media publications regarding deportations, which are said to indicate the share of people removed from the country without seeing a judge or being able to plead in his case, was presented in the report “The Deportation Dilemia
One of the main findings of MPI is that the deportation system has drastically changed in the last 19 years – moving from the judiciary before 1996, where the vast majority of people facing deportation have had hearing at the Immigration Court, in a system today from untreated removal where 75 percent of the removed people do not see a judge before being expelled from the United States
The document notes that non -judicial removal includes “accelerated removal”, “restoration of removal” and “foreseen removal”, “clarifying that the defined removal orders” are signed by an immigration judge, but usually do not include hearing removal.
(Institute of Migration Policy)
The 83% figure has probably came since 2014. report (Page 2) of the American Union for Civil Freedoms (ACLU), which found that in 2013, more than 83% of 438 421 deportations, a term used interchangeably with “removal” in the report (p. 119), is “summary removal”. These are the removal done through administrative procedures that do not include a hearing before an immigration judge.
“In 2013, 83 percent of deportment orders came from immigration officers, not judges,” the report said. The corresponding part of the “summary” of the report is indicated, “in more than 363 279 of these deportations – approximately 83 percent – people did not have a hearing, never saw an immigration judge and were deported through hip administrative processes, where the same chairman of immigration acted as a Prosecutor, Judge, Sun and Judge.
This figure comes from the 2013 annual DHS report “Immigration Actions” (p. 1), which shows that 44% of this year’s removal is accelerated, while 39% are restorations of previous removal orders – together 30% of the total removal in this fiscal year (October 1
However, elsewhere (p. 150), the document states that “every year hundreds of thousands of people (83 percent) are deported from the United States without hearing,” which could have LED to summaries.
(Aclu.org)
AS outlined in DHS documents“Accelerated Removal” refers to the removal of an unmanship, which is inadmissible, since the person does not have valid entry documents or is inadmissible for fraud or misrepresentation of a substantial fact. ” In this process, people can be removed without hearing in front of an immigration vessel.
Similarly, the “restoration of removal” applies to persons who have previously been deported and or have tried to enter the United States illegally or have been found in the country illegally or later. In such cases, the previous removal order is restored And the person can again be deported without a court hearing.
Overall, MPI and ACLU numbers reflect only one year, not on average for all eight years of Obama administration. The percentage of removal carried out through accelerated procedures and restoration of previous orders varies from year to year. In 2009, these categories made up 58% of all removal. The share then increased constantly: 63% in 2010, 64% in 2011, 75% in 2012, 83% in 2013, 84% in 2014, 83% in 2015 and 84% in 2016, average, accelerated removal and recovery represent approximately 74% of all Obama Depository.
In summary, the claim that immigration authorities have deported more than 3 million people during the Obama Administration (2009-2017) is exactly based on the “official removal data” reported by DHS. However, when you include “returns”, the total amount exceeds 5 million. For the eight -year period of the Obama administration, the percentage of conclusions made without hearing before the immigration judge ranges from approximately 58%to 84%, on average approximately 74%.
Sources:
“American exile: Fast deportations that surround the courtroom.” US Union for Civil Libertieswww.aclu.org/publications/american-exile-rapid-deportations-bypass-courtroom.
Christensen, Laerk and Nick Hardings. “Comparing Deportations for Trump’s first term with past presidents.” BundleSnopes.com, February 14, 2025, www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/14/trump-presidents-deportations/. Access to May 1, 2025
“Main indicators of internal security (KHSM).” Internal Security Statistics Service2020, ohss.dhs.gov/khsm.
Pierce, Sarah. “Obama’s record for deportations: The main or not?” Migrationpolicy.orgMarch 22, 2017, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/obama-record-deportations-deporter-chief-or-or-not.
Rosenblum, Marc, et al. Deportation dilemma that coordinate difficult and humane applicationS www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/removalsoverview-webfinal.pdf.
Siman, John. Immigration Statistics Immigration Actions for Immigration Immigration: 2013S ohss.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-12/enforcer_actions_2013.pdf.
“Understand the deportation process | Osagov.” Www.usa.govJuly 20, 2023, www.usa.gov/deportation-prcess.