So on Tuesday morning, this happened on Twitter:
Democrats are doing nothing for DACA – just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
And as weird as it seems, SOME (we said SOME) of what President Trump is suggesting in that tweet has some merit. There’s a reason why undocumented youth have been protesting Democrats the last few weeks, but they will also tell you that these brave young people will never be a bargaining chip for a DACA deal.
But before we move on and not give Trump’s tweet additional attention, we did want to take a moment and see what current Department of Justice data is saying about immigration and immigration enforcement. So we went to the one place that is the gold standard: TRAC’s Immigration Project.
Here are few things you should know:
A 14% Decrease in Criminal Immigration Prosecutions
According to TRAC, there have been 59,910 new immigration prosecutions in FY 2017, when compared to the 69,636 prosecutions from FY 2016. (By the way, in FY 2013, the number of prosecutions was close to 100,000 people.
Why the difference? TRAC explains it here, but it comes down to this: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a significant decrease in border apprehensions in FY 2017 and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which are higher in FY 2017 than FY 2016, have led directly to deportations and not prosecutions.
FY 2017 Had Less Removal Orders Than FY 2016
This chart is from this TRAC post:
The Percentage of Noncitizens Being Deported Increased in FY 2017
However, even with less prosecutions and removal orders, more noncitizens are being deported, according to this TRAC post. The percentage is the highest since FY 2012.
The Number of Noncitizens Allowed to Stay Has Decreased
If more noncitizens are being deported, then it would make sense that fewer noncitizens are being allowed to stay in the county. This TRAC post explains. This is the lowest number since FY 2012.
Deportations of People With Alleged Noncriminal Records Has Increased
What is certain under the Trump administration? There has been an increase of deportations of people with noncriminal records. You can read more about it here.
So what is the conclusion?
Trump in 2017 is a lot like Obama in 2012 (or 2014), which is around the same time DREAMers were pressuring Democrats to push for DACA.
