Y’all please remember that part of the reason the number of deportations were so high during Obama was due to the GW Bush program that started towards the end of his presidency: Secure Communities.

Secure communities brought ICE to county jails and thus many people even those with minor offenses were put in removal proceedings. A lot of them after losing their cases in court did ended up being deported during the Obama administration.

Obama ended the program and replaced with an enforcement level program where majority of cases only people with serious offenses ended up in removal proceedings. During Obama certain people in removal proceedings were afforded what was known as prosecutorial discretion and allowed to stay in the US.

Trump revived Secure Communities in 2017 and took away prosecutorial discretion and re-open proceedings for all those people who were given prosecutorial discretion under Obama.

I am not an Obama fan girl but his number look higher than most because they were a result of prior administration programs for the most part.