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MaddowBlog-White House picks a fight it can't win over Obama-era deportations
If Team Trump wants to pursue a deportation policy without sparking a national backlash, it should stop talking about Obama’s policy and start emulating Obama’s policy.
Republicans apparently want to focus on Obama-era deportations. This isn't smart.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-04T20:24:04.149Z
Obama showed that it was possible to focus on deportations without terrorizing communities and sparking a national backlash. Team Trump should stop referencing Obama’s policy and start emulating it.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-picks-a-fight-it-cant-win-over-obama-era-deportations
As Democratic outrage has grown in response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has begun referring to the masked, well-armed federal agents as the president’s “secret police.”
On Tuesday, Fox News asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for her reaction to the label.
.....Let’s take a stroll down memory lane.
Early in Obama’s presidency, the Democrat saw an opportunity to build on the plan embraced by George W. Bush: A bipartisan agreement could combine a Republican priority — increased border security — and the Democratic goal of creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
At the time, GOP lawmakers balked, but they said they were open to reaching a deal down the road: If the Democratic administration agreed to focus on deportations and security measures first, Republicans said, that would generate trust that could serve as a foundation for a comprehensive solution......
Except, the truth isn’t nearly that straightforward. Yes, the Obama administration focused on deportations in the hopes of striking a bipartisan deal — an agreement that never happened because Republicans refused to hold up their end of the bargain — but the Democratic White House never deployed masked, well-armed agents to terrorize American communities.
Leavitt and her allies want to focus on the superficial similarities instead of the substantive details that make all the difference.
As The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer noted last week, Obama’s record on deportations “just shows that if you wanted to have a conservative immigration policy without partisan militias occupying cities and gunning people down in the streets, you could do it and a lot of Americans would be fine with it.”
Leavitt and Roberts proved largely the opposite of their intended point: If Trump wants to pursue a deportation policy without sparking a national backlash, he and his team should stop talking about Obama’s policy and start emulating Obama’s policy.
On Tuesday, Fox News asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt for her reaction to the label.
FOX NEWS: What's your response to Schumer saying Mike Johnson is "pro-secret police"?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-03T18:13:19.878Z
KAROLINE LEAVITT: I didn't hear Schumer speaking that way under President Barack Obama
(ICE agents didn't wear masks while terrorizing Americans back then)
.....Let’s take a stroll down memory lane.
Early in Obama’s presidency, the Democrat saw an opportunity to build on the plan embraced by George W. Bush: A bipartisan agreement could combine a Republican priority — increased border security — and the Democratic goal of creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
At the time, GOP lawmakers balked, but they said they were open to reaching a deal down the road: If the Democratic administration agreed to focus on deportations and security measures first, Republicans said, that would generate trust that could serve as a foundation for a comprehensive solution......
Except, the truth isn’t nearly that straightforward. Yes, the Obama administration focused on deportations in the hopes of striking a bipartisan deal — an agreement that never happened because Republicans refused to hold up their end of the bargain — but the Democratic White House never deployed masked, well-armed agents to terrorize American communities.
Leavitt and her allies want to focus on the superficial similarities instead of the substantive details that make all the difference.
As The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer noted last week, Obama’s record on deportations “just shows that if you wanted to have a conservative immigration policy without partisan militias occupying cities and gunning people down in the streets, you could do it and a lot of Americans would be fine with it.”
Leavitt and Roberts proved largely the opposite of their intended point: If Trump wants to pursue a deportation policy without sparking a national backlash, he and his team should stop talking about Obama’s policy and start emulating Obama’s policy.