President Donald Trump deported 26 percent fewer Mexican nationals from January to November than former President Barack Obama did during the same period in 2016, according to data released by the Mexican government.
The data is striking because Trump took a hardline stance on illegal immigration during his 2016 presidential campaign, including a vow to authorize construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and deport criminal illegal immigrants.
According to Bloomberg, Mexico’s Interior Ministry said the United States repatriated 152,000 Mexican nationals from January to November of this year, while nearly 205,000 were repatriated to Mexico from January to November in 2016. The report noted that the Mexican government defines repatriation as an order from migration officials to return a foreign person to their country of origin.
Bloomberg stated that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement report of immigration data through the beginning of October also showed that deportations of Mexican nationals had decreased, but it also showed that arrests of all immigrants in the country illegally were up 30 percent during the fiscal year 2017.
The ICE report said that the decrease in deportations to Mexico could be traced to a decrease in the number migrants apprehended at the border.
Tyler Q. Houlton, the acting press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, told Bloomberg, “For Mexicans who enter illegally, effective tools like expedited removal have led to increased deterrence, which has impacted entry levels.”
