US Trends

how many immigrants did obama send back

Barack Obama’s administration formally deported a little over 3 million people over his eight years in office, based on standard U.S. government “removals” statistics.

Key numbers in plain terms

  • From 2009–2016, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recorded more than 3.1 million deportations (removals) under Obama.
  • The peak year was around 2012 , with just over 400,000 people removed in that single year.
  • By 2013, cumulative deportations under his presidency had already passed 2 million , which is when advocacy groups began calling him the “deporter‑in‑chief.”

Remember, these figures usually refer to formal deportations/removals , not everyone turned back at the border or those who left on their own. Some broader estimates that count all “returns” and departures put the total higher (in the 3–5 million range), depending on how “sent back” is defined.

So, for the question “how many immigrants did Obama send back” , the commonly cited official figure is a bit over 3 million formal deportations during his presidency , with higher totals if you include all other types of forced or administrative returns.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.