Fact check: Did Obama separate families when deporting

1. Summary of the results

While some family separations did occur during the Obama administration, they were extremely rare and limited to specific circumstances like suspected trafficking or security risks ^{[1] [2]}. Immigration advocates report there might have been "maybe one separation every six months to a year" during Obama's tenure ^[3]. This stands in stark contrast to later policies, which resulted in 2,000 children being separated in just two months ^[3].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several crucial pieces of context are missing from the original question:

• The Obama administration conducted significant deportations (3.2 million), but these were primarily focused on criminals and recent border crossers ^[4]
• Most deportations under Obama happened without judicial review ^[4]
• When children were processed at the border during Obama's presidency, they were primarily unaccompanied minors being placed with sponsors, often parents already in the US ^[5]
• The Obama administration explicitly considered and rejected family separation as a policy ^[2]
• The administration generally sought to keep families together in detention, often releasing them together after court decisions ^[6]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question oversimplifies a complex issue and could lead to false equivalencies. Several stakeholders benefit from different narratives:

• Immigration hardliners benefit from suggesting that aggressive family separation policies were standard practice across administrations
• Political opponents of subsequent administrations benefit from highlighting the contrast between Obama's approach and later "zero tolerance" policies
• Immigration advocates benefit from emphasizing the differences in scale and intentionality between different administrations' approaches ^[1]

The key distinction, as confirmed by multiple sources including Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen and experts from the Migration Policy Institute, is that while separations occurred under Obama, they were not part of a systematic policy ^{[2] [5]}.