Trump technically deported fewer people per term than Biden’s term or either of Obama’s terms.

But the definition of “deported” is important here. From what I remember, the definition of “encounter” (when CPB catches people crossing the border or in that buffer zone within 50 miles inland of the border/port of entry) changed around 2014. With it, the definition of who is “deported” versus simply turned away as they try to enter changed.

Also important to know that Obama most likely increased deportations during a specific period strategically to give Democrats leverage to negotiate for better policy and to establish legitimacy in the negotiations. Around 2013, there was a concerted effort in the Senate to come up with a comprehensive immigration reform package — something that hadn’t happened since the late 1980s. IIRC this was called the “Gang of Eight” — 4 Dems, 4 Repubs hashing out a framework before they were going to send a bill to the floor for negotiation. The gang never delivered a bill because the 2 parties are dysfunctional and would rather have a broken immigration system to complain about than risk actually solving it and gaining some downside risk that voters won’t actually like the effects/consequences.

Anyway, Obama’s last 2 years in office had lower immigration partly because of the change in definition, partly due to changes in policy for CPB, partly due to not needing leverage against Republicans for an immigration bill that no longer had a chance of passing, and partly due to changes in geopolitics / “push factors” of the countries where the most immigrants across the southern border came from.

After the Gang of Eight failed, Obama then pushed for reasonable treatment of the most sympathetic and least culpable undocumented immigrants — the DREAMers. Honestly it totally made sense to me because Congress, not the president sets the budget for border patrol / immigration. Every president maxes out the budget every year. The DREAM Act was simply a way to deprioritize those least likely to be a legal problem to shift budget priorities towards the parts of immigration management that need it more.