Of the deportations under obama how many were turn backs at the border

1. What the question really asks — returns versus removals and why it matters

The user’s question targets a technical distinction: removals are formal expulsions after administrative or judicial proceedings, while returns or “turn‑backs” are actions recorded when individuals are denied entry or allowed to withdraw their application at the border and sent back without a removal order; counting practices that lump these categories together change the meaning of “deportation” and the political story, a distinction emphasized in Migration Policy and DHS framing of return versus removal ^{[4] [1] [2]}.

2. What the public record shows about Obama-era totals and trends

Multiple reputable sources report that the Obama administration removed millions of people over its two terms and that removals peaked early in his presidency, with one consolidated figure of roughly 2.75 million formal removals from 2009–2016 cited by fact‑checking outlets and databases ^[5]. Other reporting notes annually high deportation totals—about 400,000 in early Obama years and 414,481 in FY2014—while also documenting a policy shift toward prioritizing criminals and recent border crossers ^{[3] [6] [5]}.

3. What the sources say about turn‑backs specifically — ambiguity, not a number

Several analyses warn that aggregate deportation statistics can be misleading because they include turn‑backs and border returns alongside interior removals, but none of the provided excerpts supplies a precise count of turn‑backs during Obama’s tenure ^{[2] [7]}. The Migration Policy Institute and related reporting explain that Obama’s DHS prioritized putting more people into formal removal proceedings rather than allowing voluntary returns, implying a relative decline in border turn‑backs over time, but they do not offer a single numeric total of turn‑backs for 2009–2016 in the material provided ^[4].

4. Why exact counts are hard to produce from available reporting

Public DHS yearbooks split some categories, and researchers note that different agencies (ICE versus CBP) and changing counting rules over time complicate historical comparisons: removals, returns, expedited removals, and withdrawals of application are recorded differently and the mid‑2000s changes in reporting further muddy trend‑lines—this is why analysts such as Cato and TRAC emphasize methodological shifts and why FOIA‑based reporting sometimes excludes CBP figures, making a clean turn‑back total elusive in the supplied documents ^{[8] [9]}.

5. Competing narratives and implicit agendas in the sources

Advocacy groups, academic centers, and conservative outlets all use the separations differently: immigrant‑rights organizations stress that many of the people targeted were non‑criminal and that expedited border processes removed due process ^{[10] [9]}, while other sources highlight that Obama’s policies intentionally shifted from informal returns to formal removals to increase penalties for unauthorized entry ^[4]. Political actors have sometimes highlighted turn‑backs to downplay or magnify the administration’s enforcement record; the reporting supplied documents both the factual basis for those claims and the analytical reasons to treat them cautiously ^{[7] [4]}.

6. Bottom line answer based on the provided reporting

The available sources do not provide a single verified number for how many Obama‑era deportations were turn‑backs at the border; they instead document that DHS distinguishes removals and returns, that roughly 2.75 million removals occurred in 2009–2016, and that returns/turn‑backs are sometimes folded into broader “deportation” totals—therefore, a precise turn‑back count for the Obama years cannot be determined from the provided material ^{[5] [2] [4]}.