So much for the "Deporter in Chief". Pro-illegal immigration activists and incurious members of the establishment media have tried to claim that Barack Obama has deported more illegal aliens than George W Bush.

That's despite the fact that back on September 28, 2011 Obama admitted this [1]:

"...the statistics are actually a little deceptive because what we’ve been doing is with the stronger border enforcement we’ve been apprehending folks at the borders and sending them back. That is counted as a deportation even though they may have only been held for a day, or 48 hours sent back. That’s counted as a deportation."

Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed how deceptive the statistics are [2]:

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson acknowledged Tuesday that his department’s deportation numbers are now mostly made up of illegal immigrants caught at the border, not just those from the interior, which means they can’t be compared one-to-one with deportations under President Bush or other prior administrations.

The administration has argued it is tougher on illegal immigration than previous presidents, and immigrant-rights groups have excoriated President Obama, calling him the “deporter-in-chief” for having kicked out nearly 2 million immigrants during his five-year tenure.

But Republican critics have argued those deportation numbers are artificially inflated because more than half of those being deported were new arrivals, caught at the border by the U.S. Border Patrol. Previous administrations primarily counted only those caught in the interior of the U.S. by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Under the Obama administration, more than half of those removals that were attributed to ICE are actually a result of Border Patrol arrests that wouldn’t have been counted in prior administrations,” said Rep. John Culberson, Texas Republican.

“Correct,” Mr. Johnson confirmed.

That would mean that in a one-to-one comparison with the final years of the Bush administration, deportations of those same people under Mr. Obama had actually fallen, according to immigration analysts who have studied the data.

That's one less deceptive talking point illegal immigration supporters can use, and it also helps highlight yet again just how incurious many supposed reporters are.

Want to do something about this? Do a search for reporters who've claimed that Obama has deported more illegal aliens than Bush or similar, and then tweet them asking when they'll post a correction.

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[1] Obama at a Hispanic roundtable ( peekURL.com/zBkhKVk ). Full paragraph containing the quote above:

Actually what happened if you look at the statistics, two things happened. Number one is, is that there was a much greater emphasis on criminals rather than non-criminals. And there’s been a huge shift in terms of enforcement. And that began as soon as I came into office, that change has taken place. Secondly the statistics are actually a little deceptive because what we’ve been doing is with the stronger border enforcement we’ve been apprehending folks at the borders and sending them back. That is counted as a deportation even though they may have only been held for a day, or 48 hours sent back. That’s counted as a deportation. So we’ve been much more effective on the borders but we have not been more aggressive when it comes to dealing for example with DREAM ACT kids, that’s just not the case. So what we’ve tried to do is within the constraints of the laws on the books, we’ve tried to be as fair, humane, just, as we can, recognizing though that the laws themselves need to be changed. And I’ve been unwavering in my support of changing the laws so that we’re strong on border security, we’re going after companies that are taking advantage of undocumented workers, paying them sub-minimum wages, you know not respecting workplace safety laws, but also saying that we’ve got to have a pathway to citizenship and for legal status for those who are already here and have put roots down here and are part of the fabric of our community because we actually believe that they can contribute to our economy in an effective way.

[2] washingtontimes . com/news/2014/mar/12/
deportations-come-mostly-from-border-dhs-chief-say