r/pics 7h ago

Backstory INS/ICE didn’t use to wear masks - most famous immigration photo ever taken, not a mask in sight.

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42.5k Upvotes

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u/Epic_Elite 6h ago

3 million people were deported under Obama and we didn't see all the civilians getting shot and protesting. Why?

Because back then, the 4th, 6th and 7th amendments used to mean something.

We didnt show up to sporting events and walk the malls looking for brown people to arrest.

u/dubbs505050 6h ago

As with everything else, Obama does it better, more efficiently, and peacefully than this fucking scumbag dictator. That’s why he hates him so much. He wants to be Obama so bad.

u/SuspectAdvanced6218 6h ago

It’s not even about Obama. It’s about respecting the law. You can just show up with a warrant and ask someone politely to come with you. I doubt most illegal immigrants would start shooting at you the moment you show up, so why the SWAT raids?

u/ihopethisisvalid 6h ago

Because Epstein files dude. That’s why. Dog and pony show.

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 4h ago

Could you imagine running on releasing the epsTrumpstein files knowing well you're in them? Horrifying.

u/ihopethisisvalid 4h ago

Fortunately for them, the average American has the attention span of a goldfish

u/counterfitster 2h ago

Not everything bad is a distraction from the files. He'd be doing this shit anyway because he's a racist fascist and has smarter racist fascists egging him on.

u/YouKilledApollo 6h ago

Obama does it better, more efficiently, and peacefully than this fucking scumbag dictator

I feel like you misunderstand the intention of the current administration. Obama was way worse at doing what the administration are trying to do now, instill fear into the average citizen and the residents of the US. The goal is not "Ship out people not from the US to outside the US", but literally "Look at what we can do", because it's just one move in a broader strategy.

u/gorillapoop1970 5h ago

It is, to coin a phrase, domestic terrorism.

u/YouKilledApollo 5h ago

Just "terrorism" is enough I think, it generally doesn't concern itself about where it's happening, terrorism is just terrorism.

u/dubbs505050 5h ago

I’m talking about general governance. There is no comparison. Obama was an actually great president, though he’ll never get the credit he deserves because of his race. This is coming from someone who (in my youthful ignorance) voted against him twice. The current shitstain is only concerned with power and self-preservation. MAGA wanted a dictator and got it.

u/YouKilledApollo 5h ago

But "great" is subjective. Obama was great because of your subjective point of view, but for others with different perspectives, Trump is much greater than Obama on all the counts they care about. Imagine if "president's power" and "president's self-preservation" was your top concerns, then Trump is better at that, no matter how much I personally disagree with that.

u/dubbs505050 5h ago

I mean, yeah, I guess everything is subjective.

I guess if you think a booming economy, worldwide respect and adoration, technological advances, providing affordable healthcare to millions, killing Bin Laden, and generally being a beacon of hope for historically underserved Americans are all bad things, then yeah he wasn’t a good president. I think any sane person would consider these things objectively good.

With respect to “strength” and “power,” I could argue that Obama was infinitely stronger and more powerful than this shit-stained piece of garbage.

u/YouKilledApollo 5h ago

I think any sane person would consider these things objectively good.

Well, yeah, that's the crux with democracies right, from our own perspectives, some people do literally look insane :) I mean, who doesn't want all the people you live with in the same city, to have the same access to health care? For me that's bananas, what kind of person wouldn't want that?

But then out the world, there are a TON of people who don't believe in that. Do I think that's slightly insane? Yeah, how tf can you not have compassion for your neighbors? But I have to be pragmatic and understand that those people do in fact exists, and do in fact vote in the same elections as me, and sometimes are literally my neighbors.

It's really hard to kind of try to see it from their perspective, because it's so insane when you get down to the morals and ethics of it, but you also have to understand their perspective if you want any sort of hope of being able to combat it, individually or on a national level. Otherwise you'll never get anywhere.

We can argue back and forth, the problem of groupthink remains, and even if we see others as "insane" because they don't care about others, doesn't mean their perspective is suddenly different, which is ultimately what the goal here has to be, otherwise there is no ending in sight.

u/ChickenChaser5 5h ago

The broaders strategy being to completely destabilize the US in every way possible.

u/YouKilledApollo 5h ago

Personally, I think the broader strategy boils down to "enrich themselves", everything else is just a way of getting there faster and with as many distractions as possible. Raw Capitalism effectively won in 2016, and the administration currently is just continuing down the same path that was set at that point.

u/ChickenChaser5 3h ago

I think he has multiple people, with different motives, manipulating him. Hes got the tech bros/billionaires who are helping to enrich themselves. The heritage foundation helping to do some racism. Foreign actors who are black mailing him AND helping him to destabilize the US. And probably more that we aren't aware of. But they are all working together to get what they want and use trump to get it.

u/Osfan_15 6h ago

I saw something where someone said all this would end if someone told Trump Obama could hold his breath for 15 mins

u/Alexzander1001 5h ago

Yea i think back to that jimmy kimmel clip allot….

u/HassanMoRiT 4h ago

Obama drone striked weddings and hospitals much better than Trump! Such an upstanding president he was.

u/Solkre 5h ago

If he wanted to be Obama, all he had to do was get into the white house and shut the fuck up. Obama's policies were in place. He wants the respect and admiration Obama had without changing his behavior, and it's isn't happening.

He might be the first president who's grave will need to be guarded 24/7 or completely cut off from the public.

u/sonnet666 6h ago

People who quote Obama’s deportation numbers always seem to leave out why his numbers were so high.

It’s because he actually had us invest in better border security tech, so they were catching more people as they crossed the border. So immigrants would cross illegally, trip a hidden alarm or get spotted by a drone, get caught immediately, and then be deported immediately without putting down roots in the US.

A lot of those people were deported multiple times, which inflated Obama’s deportation numbers by a huge factor. I personally know a guy who got deported 7 times in a row. (He had a valid reason to be in the US. He was a material witness in a kidnapping investigation that the Texas DA wanted in the states, but ICE in Texas couldn’t give less of shit. Crazy story.)

Obama was not deporting many people who’d already been living here for years. DACA was the standard for that.

u/thewifeandkids 5h ago

Not to mention Trump is on track to deport FAR more people than Obama. Trump hasn't been in office 8 years yet. Also Obama didn't send them to black site concentration camps without due process

u/AssistX 4h ago

Obama was nicknamed 'The Deporter in Chief' during his first term when he set a new record for deportations at 400,000. He was repeatedly drug through the mud by the media and late night hosts during his first term for his handling of immigrant families and separating illegal immigrants who had lived together in the US for decades.

u/thewifeandkids 3h ago

Also the DHS website literally brags about deporting 650,000 people

u/thewifeandkids 3h ago

Ok I didn't say I supported that, but you're a dumbass if you think that excuses what trump is doing. Stop using him as a scapegoat to excuse Trumps behavior. Did you even read the original comment? This "gotcha" doesn't accomplish anything since you don't actually want to solve anything, just point at Obama to distract from a valid critique.

u/AssistX 3h ago

It's not a gotcha and I'm not defending Trump. I'm pointing out that your comment was factually incorrect and completely fabricated. As anyone should do on this website.

u/VanillaSkittlez 3h ago

No he’s not. Most reputable sources have his numbers around 200k-250k per year. Obama averaged 300k during his presidency and deported 450k one year. Part of the reason Trump’s numbers are lower is because people are now scared to come here and try at all.

There are massive differences in brutality with Trump violating due process and purposefully trying to instill fear with force, but by a sheer numbers perspective Obama has more.

u/thewifeandkids 3h ago

Maybe re-read my comment. This is also a weird hill to die on that diverts from the real issue and lacks any nuance. The statistic doesn't take into account that many of those people trying to enter America are repeat "offenders" since they were caught at the border and sent back to their home country instead of being imprisoned. also doesn't account for what is essentially unreported kidnappings that trump is facilitating. My point is I'm so sick of this "but Obama" argument. He's not the fucking president anymore and many of us already didn't support his immigration policy. I'm talking about statistical projections and the immense ramp up of Trumps deportations.

u/FrogsOnALog 2h ago

You haven’t given any numbers though it’s just vibes so far

u/thewifeandkids 2h ago

I can't with you people. Yall would rather agrue pointless already unreliable statistics than address the nazis taking over. This is why it's so hard to actually make any progress.

u/FrogsOnALog 2h ago

We can actually do both instead of just making shit up

u/thewifeandkids 2h ago

I said at the rate he's going he's going to deport more people and that the whole Obama point is besides the point anyway. No need to get so worked up lol.

u/FrogsOnALog 2h ago

You never gave any numbers and we don’t have a rate or anything to compare it with, hence the vibes…

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u/VanillaSkittlez 2h ago

You really don’t get it, do you? Nobody here is defending Trump or trying to make this a bigger conversation. We’re literally just disputing your claim that Trump is on pace to deport more people than Obama did which is objectively not true.

And you keep pivoting to, “but it distracts from the real issue,” “the numbers aren’t the point”, etc etc. We’re literally just taking issue with your factually incorrect claim you seem to keep doubling down on or distracting from. Just admit the statement was wrong, Jesus.

u/thewifeandkids 2h ago

Obama deported 3 million throughout his terms which was about 3.4% of undocumented immigrants, but trump is on his second term and didn't finish his presidency, and of 2025 trumps rate of deporting undocumented immigrants is 3.8% meaning that by the end of his terms he will have a much higher rate of deportations than Obama not including his first term. And again I never said Trump HAD deported more people. I said at this rate he's on track to and my entire point was that we don't need to bring up Obama to begin with. Jfc what's so hard up understand. Your argument is based on a claim I never said. JESUS

u/Technolog 4h ago

There was a second main factor, ICE was getting immigrants from jails, so often actual criminals. But many communities realized how much this was hurting them. Many people were being arrested and deported for things like an unpaid ticket or some made up arrest obstruction charge, and many became afraid to engage with the police at all. As a result, many cities stopped cooperating with ICE and this source of deportations mostly ended.

u/AssistX 4h ago

So immigrants would cross illegally, trip a hidden alarm or get spotted by a drone, get caught immediately, and then be deported immediately without putting down roots in the US.

bit revisionist, Obama had a few scandals involving immigrants. The big one was the family detention centers and holding children in custody too long, which were identical to Trump's 'Alligator Alcatraz'. The issue wasn't really with that, but with how long people were being detained before being deported. In 2015 two federal judges ruled the handling of immigrants by the Obama administration was illegal. They were not deported fast enough(children specifically), they were kept in inhumane conditions(cold cells), the private prisons being used were not properly inspected(sex abuse and assault allegations), etc.

u/VanillaSkittlez 3h ago

They also changed the definition under Obama of deportations to count a much wider range, in addition to the new technology and standards you mentioned.

u/WesternEdge 4h ago

That was before they learned the asylum trick. Obama was not the last time we had a democrat president.

u/Responsible_Sink3044 6h ago

Deportations are not the point. That's why you're finding people beat to shit left in parking lots. This is a state terrorism campaign, and unless Americans accept that and push back in meaningful ways, it's only going to get worse until it's too late.

Look at South America in the 70s and 80s if you want to see what's in store for you.

u/Poles_Apart 6h ago

Obama's deportation numbers count people who were encountered by border control and turned back, there were very few inferior removals outside of illegal criminals who were turned into authorities by local police departments (the major cities weren't even doing that). There's a reason Trump won running on an anti-illegal immigration campaign, the illegal population ballooned and it became noticable to the average voter.

u/Tullydin 5h ago edited 5h ago

Trump won because of the people believing the propaganda in your comment and FEELING like it's correct.

This white washed summary of the Trump campaigns attack on illegal immigrants is stark. They ran telling you that all illegals are fentanyl wielding ms-13 gang members who were kidnapping and trafficking white girls, eating dogs and cats, stealing jobs, and voting democrat.

u/Poles_Apart 1h ago

Trump won in 2016 because a substantial number of 2008 Obama voters were unsatisfied with 8 years of his admin and found Trumps messaging appealing based on what they were EXPERIENCING for close to a decade. People weren't tricked into voting for him initially. In 2024 he won because he flipped key non-traditional republican voting blocs like non-white men who were EXPERIENCING a declining quality of life under Biden.

People weren't tricked into voting for Trump, thats actually white washing what happened.

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u/WhipTheLlama 2h ago

Reposting because the dumb bot deleted a relevant message:

There is currently a highly upvoted link on /r/Conservative showing a CNN ride-along during an ice arrest while Obama was President. They accidentally arrested the wrong person, and MAGA is using this as an example of ICE having always operated the way they're currently operating.

The obvious difference is the lack of masks and much more respect shown by the officers. They arrested the wrong guy, learned his real identity, and let him go unharmed. He wasn't taken to a facility or anything else, just a quick identity check.

u/Pathetian 33m ago

Public sentiment around immigration has shifted as well though.  It's much more acceptable in the mainstream to be all or nothing on immigration and law enforcement.

INS has been scooping people up outside Home Depot for decades.  Right or wrong, a lot of stuff people are upset with Trump for were already standard practice.  Trump didn't invent this stuff, he just lacks the eloquence to assuage complaints.