At least USA Today isn’t pretending that President Barack Obama, whose administration put kids in cages, wanted to abolish ICE. Journalists have a tough time remembering the Obama years, but he was criticized consistently from the Left as being the “Deporter in Chief.”

But USA Today would like to put a kinder, gentler spin on Obama’s track record with ICE. During his administration, ICE arrests of illegal aliens with criminal records peaked at 89 percent, while in December, under President Trump, only 63.5 percent of those arrested had criminal records.

NEW: ICE sets record for arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record. 63.5% of ICE arrests in December had criminal record, lowest figure on record. Under Obama, ICE peaked at 89% and was at 82% in his final month in office. https://t.co/glMKtpLDmN via @usatoday — Alan Gomez (@alangomez) March 21, 2019

Again, that’s only 63.5 percent of people in the country illegally who had criminal records. “That means 36.5 percent of the arrests were simply undocumented with no criminal history,” writes Alan Gomez.

USA Today reports:

Under Obama, ICE agents pursuing a specific undocumented immigrant with a criminal record were under orders not to round up everyone else they found along the way. That meant ICE agents raiding a house to find an undocumented immigrant with a violent criminal record, for example, were not supposed to question everyone else living there about their immigration status. Through a series of Homeland Security memos issued in February 2017, one month after Trump took office, those restrictions were removed.

Um, good?

The number is actually 100%. — PeteInJersey (@PeteInJersey) March 21, 2019

100% of the people ICE arrested were breaking the law. 63.5% had broken additional laws. Try an accurate narrative for once. — Mike Real-Last-Name-Unknown (@Detached_Mess) March 21, 2019

Only 63.5% of illegal aliens had no criminal record on record, but of those 63.5%, 100% were in this country illegally, making them criminals by definition. #BasicMath — ??TNovaUSA?? (@TCasanovaMD) March 21, 2019

This is journalism today folks. — David Satanas (@DavidSmejkal666) March 21, 2019

Not having documents is a crime. Glad to help you learn, because it's almost like you're biased otherwise — Anthony Bialy (@AnthonyBialy) March 21, 2019

Psssst “undocumented” means illegal and therefore a crime is being committed pic.twitter.com/H9YTXc6UNG — Lady J (@SecretMaga) March 21, 2019

hey dont know if you are aware of this since you're only a journalist but physically being in the country without proper documentation is in fact illegal in the USA and every other country ever — Savage Jon (@johnqnixon) March 21, 2019

You got paid to write this — Anna Bordelon (@AnnaBordelon84) March 21, 2019

Crossing the border illegally. Every single time. It’s a crime. — Ryan B. Leslie (@RyanBLeslie) March 21, 2019

My favorite is the defense that they "pay taxes" by committing yet another crime, identity theft. — ıllıllı ??????? ıllıllı (@slatermaus) March 21, 2019

Strangely enough, the police will arrest 100% of people that break into the USA Today headquarters in McLean, Virginia whether they have committed other crimes or not. — Regs (@r3gulations) March 21, 2019

Love me some ICE! Keep up the good work. — Annette (@funnijello) March 21, 2019

That's awesome!!! People in government actually doing their job…give them a raise. — stay positive (@JandEsdad) March 21, 2019

Shorter: ICE is enforcing the law. — Don Cheech (@donciccio807) March 21, 2019

Why is this relevant? Isn't breaking the law sufficient to warrant enforcement action? — Mike Miller (@PigbirdJetFan) March 21, 2019

Immigrating illegally is against the law. How hard is this for people to understand? Vote to change the law, but until then that is the law. — Flurypd (@FluryPD) March 21, 2019

Current United States law (as well as every other country on the planet) clearly states that anyone in the country illegally is subject to deportation. Anything, 24/7. That’s why you shouldn’t be in anyone’s country illegally. — BKactual (@BKactualPodcast) March 21, 2019

And here’s a flashback to the Obama years, when lefty papers like the New York Daily News would write pieces like, “Obama’s Assault on Immigrants.”

The removal stats under Obama were deceptive, as he counted individuals with traffic tickets and petty violations as a criminal deportation. https://t.co/5EjUpYceGQ .cc @latinorebels — Matthew Kolken (@mkolken) March 21, 2019

From 2014:

… Time and again, President Obama has promised to deport only the “criminals” and “gangbangers.” But numbers speak louder than words. A recent analysis by a policy group at Syracuse University found that just 12% of the deportees in 2013 had been convicted of a crime that ICE considers “serious.” What’s more, over 100,000 people were deported for either traffic violations or illegal entry, which is a petty misdemeanor. Last year was no fluke. Twenty percent of the more than 2.3 million people deported since the start of the Obama administration were convicted of nothing more than traffic or immigration offenses.

So, while the USA Today piece says Trump was going to target “bad hombres,” Obama said he was going to target “gangbangers,” but deported those convicted of “nothing more than” immigration offenses. Huh.

And he put kids in cages too.

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