How Tough Is Obama?

"Criminal immigration enforcement by the federal government has recently increased to levels comparable to the highest seen during the Bush administration," says USA Today about the analysis of data from TRAC, a monitoring project of Syracuse University. Readers should note two important problems with this report. First, the TRAC report measures referrals for prosecution, not the prosecutions themselves. Referrals for prosecution, which normally go to the U.S. Attorneys (within the Department of Justice) could easily be declined and often are declined for lack of resources. And even if a prosecution takes place, it does not mean that the offender prosecuted is removed. The alien could be released on bond, or the government may simply decline to initiate removal proceedings.

The second point is that even when comparing prosecution referrals and using TRAC's own numbers, the Obama administration still falls 8 percent below the Bush administration. For TRAC to call this to "immigration enforcement" (see the title of the report) and suggest that the number of prosecution referrals are comparable under the Obama and Bush administrations is seriously misleading. Finally, looking at this from a broader perspective, the TRAC reports also highlights how statistics are being manipulated to convince the American people that the Obama Administration takes immigration enforcement seriously when the exact opposite is the case.