Some facts about immigration enforcement under Trump II:
What percentage of people arrested by ICE agents are illegal aliens and what percentage are innocent citizens?
Grok: "According to data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and independent tracking by organizations like the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) and media outlets, ICE arrests overwhelmingly target non-citizens with immigration violations—commonly referred to as illegal aliens or undocumented immigrants. Reports indicate that over 328,000 people were arrested by ICE from January to mid-December 2025.
Wrongful arrests of U.S. citizens (who could be considered "innocent" in this context, as they are not subject to immigration enforcement) are rare but documented. Investigations have identified more than 170 confirmed cases of U.S. citizens being held by ICE agents in 2025, often due to errors in questioning citizenship status. Other sources report up to 674 arrests of individuals claiming or confirmed as U.S. citizens during the same period, though only about 121 were detained beyond initial arrest.
Using the higher estimate of 674 wrongful arrests out of approximately 328,000 total ICE arrests in 2025, this represents about 0.2% of arrests. The lower confirmed figure of 170 cases equates to roughly 0.05%. In either case, the percentage of "innocent people" (U.S. citizens wrongly arrested) is under 1%, while approximately 99.8-99.95% are non-citizens with immigration violations (illegal aliens)."
Now, the rates appear to be higher, maybe materially so, than those under Obama's administration:
"Exact numbers for "wrongfully detained" under Obama remain estimates or partial tallies (likely in the hundreds based on the overlapping data points above), as many cases go unreported or unresolved without litigation."
But the overarching context of enforcement and the problems inherent therein have hardly changed:
"These incidents often stem from mistaken identity, database errors, similar names, or reliance on outdated/inaccurate records—issues that persisted across administrations. The Obama era saw high overall deportation numbers (over 3 million removals), which critics argue increased the risk of errors in enforcement, though targeted policies focused more on criminals than mass raids. For context, recent reports (e.g., from ProPublica in 2025) highlight similar ongoing problems under later administrations, underscoring that this is a recurring challenge not unique to any one presidency."
Ive never labelled Obama as a radical progressive, though. I don’t think he is/was, even for his era.
don't think he was either. He was left but nothing like what we have today.
Not during his presidency. If rumors are true about his influence over Biden, he changed.
I don't know anything about that.
Neither does COH.
He was a very liberal voter as a Senator and then proceeded to push a heavily leftist agenda (DEI, ACA, etc.). Not everything is about race, Marv.
ACA was as moderate as a reform as was humanly possible. Medicare for all is fare left of that, as is going to the British system, the Canadian, the French, .... .
People on the left were very angry that he didn't push Congress to try to do far more on that, to eliminate private insurance. We need Rockfish around, he presented that case back then. Go meet some progressives and discuss how much you love the ACA. You'll find out they want far more. You will hear it is nothing more than a way to ensure profits for the monied interests in insurance.
Obama refused to use his popularity to try to do any such thing, and it angered many further left. There is a GIANT gulf between Warren/Sanders/Mamdani and Obama.
https://progressive.org/op-eds/barack-obama-not-my-hero-pitchford-201214/
The "burn the system to the ground" populists won the GOP over, the liberal version hasn't gained that much power. If Obama had it, we would have at least Medicare for all and not ACA. Believe me, we won't have ACA after President AOC gets done.
The ACA exchanges are collapsing
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/obamacare-insurers-seek-big-rate-hikes-again-8a4bf9e4