Were there anti-deportation protests under other American presidents?
Executive summary
Yes — opposition to deportation policies is not unique to the second Trump administration; presidents of both parties have presided over large deportation campaigns that generated protest and organizing, but the scale, character and visibility of anti‑deportation demonstrations in 2025–26 reflect a new surge built on earlier grievances [1] [2] [3].
1. Deportations under prior presidents: the factual baseline
Presidential administrations before 2025 carried out large deportation programs that produced controversy: the Obama administration removed roughly three million people over two terms, earning the president the label “Deporter‑in‑Chief” among immigrant advocates, and the Biden administration recorded over 4.4 million removals and returns over its four years in office, largely through “returns” rather than formal court orders [1] [2].
2. Protest as a recurring response — what the sources establish
Advocacy groups and analysts say protest and community mobilization have long been part of the response to aggressive enforcement: Bridging Divides’ mapping finds immigration‑related demonstrations rose around policy shifts and inflammatory rhetoric, and that the mass mobilization of early 2025 built on earlier cross‑partisan community efforts to resist anti‑immigrant actions [3]. While the reporting in the provided set centers on a dramatic wave of demonstrations in 2025–26, those accounts explicitly situate the surge in the context of an ongoing history of immigrant‑rights activism rather than depicting protest as a brand‑new phenomenon [3] [1].
3. What makes the 2025–26 protests different, according to reporting
Multiple outlets emphasize features that distinguish the recent wave: the White House’s 2025 executive actions and promises of “mass deportation” elevated enforcement into a national crisis, prompting coordinated strikes, large marches and nightly demonstrations in multiple cities; news organizations and issue briefs document nationwide “no work, no school, no shopping” strikes, thousands at city halls and airport actions, and unprecedented deployments of federal forces to cities like Los Angeles [4] [5] [3]. Some outlets characterize the scale as unprecedented; others frame it as a predictable intensification when policy, rhetoric and enforcement converge [6] [3].
4. Competing narratives and political framing
Reporting reveals a sharp split over whether the protesters are a spontaneous grassroots defense of communities or driven by outside agitators and partisan actors: fact‑checking outlets examined claims that protesters were “paid agitators” and found evidence for a large volunteer base in local movements, while administration allies pushed narratives that sought to discredit protesters and justify heavy enforcement [7]. Meanwhile, critics and advocacy groups argue previous administrations’ high removal numbers undercut claims that current enforcement is novel, framing the new tactics and legal authorities in 2025 as an escalation [1] [2].
5. Limits of the available reporting and what remains unclear
The assembled sources document a clear uptick in anti‑deportation demonstrations in 2025–26 and establish that mass removals have occurred under prior presidents, but they do not provide a comprehensive, source‑by‑source catalog of specific anti‑deportation protests under each earlier administration; therefore this reporting can confirm that protest is a recurring element of U.S. immigration politics and that past presidents oversaw large deportation programs [1] [2], but it cannot, from these sources alone, enumerate or compare every protest episode under earlier presidencies with the 2025–26 wave.