Fact check: How many families were separated during Obama's presidency compared to Trump's presidency?

1. Summary of the results

The exact number of family separations during Obama's presidency cannot be precisely quantified, as the Department of Homeland Security could not provide specific statistics for that period ^[1]. However, what is clear is that there was a fundamental difference in approach between the two administrations. Under Obama, separations were "minuscule" and occurred only in specific circumstances such as:

• Suspected child trafficking
• Inability to verify family relationships
• Cases involving parental arrest ^[1]

In contrast, under Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, at least 2,700 children were separated from their families as part of a systematic approach ^[2].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

Several important contextual elements need to be considered:

• The Obama administration did consider using family separation as a deterrent and threatened it during legal challenges to family detention policies ^[3]
• Previous administrations, including Obama's, primarily used family detention facilities that kept families together ^[1]
• There's often confusion about numbers: The figure of 89,000 children during Obama's term actually refers to unaccompanied minors who were placed with sponsors, not children separated from their parents at the border ^[2]

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The question itself could lead to false equivalencies by comparing two fundamentally different approaches:

• It's misleading to directly compare numbers between the administrations since one had a systematic policy of separation while the other did not ^[1]
• The lack of precise statistics from the Obama era ^[1] can lead to speculation and misrepresentation
• Political groups often conflate unaccompanied minors with separated families to inflate numbers, as seen with the misused 89,000 figure ^[2]

Those who benefit from these comparisons might include:

• Political operatives seeking to either minimize or exaggerate the differences between administrations
• Immigration policy advocates on both sides who use these numbers to support their preferred approaches to border enforcement