Donald Trump is the first president in history to use ice to round up illegal immigrants Barack Obama rounded up illegal in my friends life Donald Trump totalingmore than 2 million
Executive summary
The claim that Donald Trump is the first U.S. president to use ICE to round up undocumented immigrants is incorrect: ICE enforcement predates Trump and large-scale removals were a hallmark of the Obama administration as well, with several fact-based analyses finding Obama oversaw more removals than Trump by multiple common metrics [1] [2]. Numbers and labels — “deportations,” “removals,” “returns,” and “expulsions” — vary across data sets, so simple numerical comparisons can be misleading without defining the metric [3] [4].
1. ICE is not a Trump invention; removals predate 2017
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was created in 2003, and federal immigration enforcement actions using ICE occurred under multiple administrations before Trump, most notably under Barack Obama whose administration carried out millions of removals over two terms, a fact documented in government and independent analyses [1] [2].
2. Who “deported more” depends on the metric — but Obama led on common measures
Multiple reputable fact-checks and data analyses conclude Obama’s administration deported more people than Trump’s across widely used measures of removals and returns; PolitiFact and TRAC-based reporting show Obama recorded higher totals during each of his terms than Trump did during his, and several news analyses likewise report higher Obama totals [1] [2] [5].
3. Conflicting totals and why they exist: removals vs. returns vs. expulsions
Different outlets and agencies report different aggregates — Newsweek cites multi‑million figures and reports a jump in some tallies attributed to differing definitions, while other outlets and researchers show Trump’s total ranging from about 1.5 million in his first term to higher figures depending on whether voluntary returns and border expulsions are included [6] [2] [7]. Factchequeado’s breakdowns stress that fiscal-year accounting and inclusion criteria change totals significantly, which explains apparent contradictions in public debate [3].
4. Policy tone and targeting changed under Trump even if raw totals sometimes didn’t exceed Obama’s
Several analyses conclude that the experience of enforcement under Trump felt different because priorities shifted from Obama’s “priority enforcement” and selective protections like DACA toward broader, less discretionary enforcement under Trump, producing greater fear and media scrutiny even in years with fewer or similar removals per month than Obama’s peak [8] [4] [7].
5. Anecdotes (like "my friend") cannot establish national trends; they are not dispositive
Individual accounts of arrests or deportations are important but do not establish whether one president “rounded up” more people historically; the available nationwide data must be used for that determination, and the sources provided do not verify any specific anecdote referenced in the question [1] [2]. Reporting limitations prevent confirming personal claims from private parties when no public record is cited.
6. Political framing and implicit agendas shape how the numbers are presented
Media pieces and political actors often cherry-pick a favored metric or time window to support a narrative — for example, characterizing Obama as the “Deporter‑in‑Chief” or presenting Trump as overseeing unprecedented mass deportations — and that selection can reflect partisan aims rather than a single objective accounting; analysts and outlets cited here explicitly note these framing differences [6] [9] [7].
7. Bottom line: the straight factual answer to the core claim
Donald Trump is not the first president to use ICE to arrest or remove undocumented immigrants — that practice predates his tenure — and multiple data-driven reviews show Barack Obama’s administrations recorded higher totals of removals/deportations by common measures than Trump’s, though exact totals differ by dataset and definition and cannot be reconciled into a single undisputed number from the sources provided [1] [2] [3].