Over 1 Million have been deported under Obama

You will recall that one of the campaign promises that Barack Obama gave was to reform the immigration policies of this country to make them more humane.

Well, it is three years later and there have been more than 1 million people deported under his administration. This reality has not been lost on many Americans, particularly the Latino community, which has been hit the hardest by the increase in immigration raids by ICE.

Last week, Latino youth protested the President during a speech he gave at the National Latino Youth Conference in DC. Here is part of a Media Release that was released explaining the action:

Wearing shirts that read “Obama Deports DREAMers,” Latino youth demonstrated the Latino community’s growing frustration with President Obama. The students conducted the action while the President gave a speech today at a major Latino conference in Washington, DC.



“We stood up while President Obama gave another of his predictable speeches on immigration because we are outraged at his trying to promote his election among Latinos while continuing to deport us at a time when there is no legislative solution to the immigration crisis,” said Felipe Matos, an undocumented student from Florida and advocate with Presente.org. “The fact is that Obama has deported over one million immigrants, including DREAMers, since he arrived to the White House. It is inconceivable that he keeps giving political speeches to win the Latino vote for 2012 while dividing the Latino community with his inhumane immigration policies.”

Presente.org, an online advocacy group that seeks to empower Latinos across the nation, joined forces today with United We DREAM, a national immigrant youth-led organization with the mission of achieving equal access to higher education for immigrants, to continue urging President Obama sign an executive order that would stop the deportations of DREAM Act eligible youth until there is a legislative solution to our human rights crisis.



“I grew up in this nation with the passion of becoming a doctor and give back to my community, but now I face the reality of being deported anytime soon,” expressed Mercedes Gonzalez, one of the near 20 DREAMers who stood up during Obama’s speech. 

Students participating in the action urging Obama to stop deporting them came from the states of Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arizona.



As shown on a recent poll by ImpreMedia/Latino Decisions, immigration is the most important issue for Latino voters – the fastest growing voting bloc in the nation. Because there is an immigration crisis in dividing our nation, Presente.org has been following and calling out the President Obama every time he addresses the Latino community.



“We organized the Latino and immigrant community during Obama’s recent appearances in Puerto Rico, Texas and now in Washington, DC urging Obama to use his executive power to stop deporting DREAMers. We won’t stop following him and organizing until he stops his inhumane deportation program,” concluded Felipe Matos.



According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as of May 23, 2011, the U.S. government has deported 1,026,517 immigrants since the beginning of fiscal year 2009. That figure includes noncriminal immigrants and DREAMers who are victims of our outdated immigration system.”

Some immigration groups are asking people to sign petitions to the President and get him to reverse his policy on deportation and targeting undocumented immigrants. However, since Obama is in the midst of a re-election campaign it seems unlikely that that White House will do anything substantive on this issue. Maybe it is time for people to say they won’t vote for him again until these kinds of life and death policies are changed?