But if you did include the number of people who "self-deported" then you'd find that the total number is not that great under Obama and in fact is lowest since 1970s.

Now, I don't know what these two numbers from DHS reports actually mean and the DHS does not tell me, but I find it peculiar that the number of "returns" under Obama decreased 10-fold, while the number of "removals" doubled. More peculiar that the "returns" had been pretty stable for the past 30 years too, the 2014's 162K returns only had been seen in 1968 before.

https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2014/tab...

> Until recent years, most people caught illegally crossing the southern border were simply bused back into Mexico in what officials called "voluntary returns," but which critics derisively termed "catch and release." Those removals, which during the 1990s reached more 1 million a year, were not counted in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's deportation statistics.

>Now, the vast majority of border crossers who are apprehended get fingerprinted and formally deported.

>Expulsions of people who are settled and working in the United States have fallen steadily since his first year in office, and are down more than 40% since 2009.

Just putting this out there.