Story highlights Deportations in the first three months of this term lag behind the Obama administration

It can take years to deport an immigrant after an arrest

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his administration -- but so far his administration is deporting fewer people than his predecessor.

According to statistics from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) given to CNN, the pace of removals under Trump in his first three months lags behind even the last two years of his predecessor, when then-President Barack Obama ordered his agencies to use more discretion when it came to deporting undocumented immigrants, focusing specifically on criminals.

The numbers also stand against other recently released statistics that showed an uptick in the number of arrests made by ICE in the first two months of Trump's administration, especially of non-criminal immigrants.

From Inauguration Day until this week, ICE removed 54,564 individuals, including 30,667 convicted criminals and 23,897 non-criminals, according to the data shared with CNN.

Thus far, those numbers track slightly behind the pace of removals during the same time period during the past two years of the Obama administration -- and greatly lag behind the rate of deportations before Obama ordered greater discretion.

Read More