Fact check: How many legal immigrants did Obama accidentally deport

1. Summary of the results

The question contains a fundamental misconception about Obama's deportations. The data shows varying total deportation numbers during Obama's presidency:

• Approximately 3.06 million total deportations according to one source ^[1]
• Around 5 million deportations according to another source ^[2]
• 5.3 million total deportations (3.2 million first term, 2.1 million second term) according to federal data ^[3]

However, these numbers refer primarily to illegal immigrants, not legal ones as suggested in the question. There is no evidence in any of the provided sources suggesting that Obama accidentally deported legal immigrants in significant numbers.

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several important contextual points need to be considered:

• Obama's administration specifically focused on deporting individuals with criminal records and recent arrivals ^[2]
• The term "deporter-in-chief" was commonly used to describe Obama's presidency ^{[1] [2]}
• While Obama's numbers were high, they did not exceed all previous administrations combined - he issued 3.1 million removal orders compared to 4.6 million issued before his presidency ^[4]
• Obama's deportation numbers were actually higher than Trump's in each term ^[3]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question contains several problematic assumptions:

• It incorrectly assumes deportations were of legal immigrants
• It suggests deportations were "accidental," while sources indicate they were part of a deliberate policy focusing on specific groups ^[2]
• The use of the word "accidentally" appears to be attempting to create a narrative of administrative incompetence, while sources indicate these were intentional policy decisions with specific targeting criteria

The varying numbers across sources (ranging from 3.06 to 5.3 million) suggest that different methodologies may have been used to count deportations, or different types of removals may have been included in different counts. This highlights the importance of being precise when discussing immigration statistics and policies.