Misinformation on Who is Actually Being Deported

I keep hearing two completely different narratives from liberal vs conservative media.

Conservative outlets are saying they're only going after illegal immigrants with criminal records or those with existing deportation orders.

Liberal outlets are saying they're going into schools and churches and tearing families apart. That even green card holders and actual citizens are being deported. And even those with temporary protected status (such as those legally waiting for asylum) are being deported.

Then they show anecdotal individual cases of deportation or detainment emphasizing the emotional aspects like family being separated. But don't mention the status - did they do a crime? do they have an existing deportation order from before?, etc.

And then it's being portrayed like people are being insta-deported as if there's no due process at all. That you don't have to appear in front of a judge and there is no appeal.

So who the hell is telling the truth?

It is obvious there is a lot of exaggeration and hyperbole happening. But it doesn't help anyone fear mongering and putting people into a frenzy over unfounded fears.

Here are some facts I gleaned from a recent NY Times article.

  1. There are 655,000 illegal immigrants that have criminal records or arrests for crime.
  2. There are 1.4 million illegal immigrants with existing deportation orders that are still in the country.
  3. ICE is deporting people in accordance with the law. Nothing illegal is happening. It's just that the country hasn't been consistently enforcing the law for decades, so that is why it seems shocking to some.

So if there are so many with criminal records or existing deportation orders, why do so many people have a problem with it? We don't even have enough infrastructure, agents or judges to even deport all of these, let alone the non criminal ones.

Here's the NY Times article. If you can't get past the soft paywall, below that is the archived version.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/17/us/immigrants-trump-deportations.html

https://archive.ph/uEWah