Earlier this month, former president Barack Obama took to X to express his disapproval of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, highlighting that immigrants should be treated with “dignity and respect.”

Predictably, many of the responses to the post focused on Obama’s record on deportations, which earned him the moniker of “Deporter in Chief,” and which far exceeded President Trump’s deportations during his first presidency.

Many people often conclude that, given deportation numbers, Obama was worse or at least similar to Trump on immigration. But there’s a key difference that most people ignore: Obama didn’t gloat about his deportations and treatment of immigrants, whereas Trump makes a show of it and wears deportations as a badge of honor. The difference in how both presidents frame the issue matters if one wants to understand what may motivate them.

During his tenure, Obama removed over 3 million people from the country (not counting returns at the border and voluntary departures) — more than his predecessors, Presidents Clinton and Bush, combined; and more than the 1.2 million that Trump removed during his first term. Obama was notorious for his detention tactics and conditions as well, as shown in a 2011 PBS documentary titled “Lost in Detention.”

Obama and the Democrats in Congress at the time also failed to pass immigration reform. The precedent Obama set with his immigration enforcement and the failure to enact substantial immigration reforms that’d be more respectful of the rights of immigrants and Americans are part of what enabled the current “mass deportations” agenda under Trump. While he enacted some measures to help protect immigrants temporarily, such as DACA, Obama was a failure on immigration and caused irreparable harm to countless individuals and the prospects of changing the immigration system in the future.

But Obama is still fundamentally different from Trump on this issue. For Obama, mass deportations were a means to an end. For Trump, they are an end in themselves.

Even though Obama cracked down heavily on immigrants, he was a reluctant enforcer (at least publicly). He claimed to ramp up enforcement in order to unlock immigration reform. He framed increased immigration enforcement as a means of achieving protections and legal status for millions of immigrants. Record deportations, including of peaceful immigrants, were a selling tool to push reform and meet the demands of Republicans in Congress. When discussing the issue in public, Obama shared statistics and numbers (“we’ve increased the removal of criminals by 70%”) but didn’t gloat nor pat himself on the back for breaking up families, nor demonize or mock immigrants.

He highlighted that he considered most illegal immigrants to be peaceful and hard-working and admitted the system that criminalized their presence was broken. One can certainly judge Obama’s approach as immoral, destructive and ultimately useless (immigration reform was never achieved), but the “means-to-an-end” strategy is how the former president framed the issue publicly.

In sharp contrast stands President Trump. For him, mass deportations seem more like an end in themselves rather than a means to an end. For years, he has been calling immigrants “invaders,” accusing them of heinous acts and overall collectivizing them as violent criminals who threaten Americans. While the president has claimed he is making America “safer” by deporting immigrants, the reality of the immigration enforcement we’re seeing shows something completely different. Per a recent report by the Cato Institute, the vast majority of immigrants detained and deported in FY2025 so far have no criminal convictions. The recent instructions given to ICE officers to target workers are further evidence of this — the focus isn’t on criminals.

The Trump administration purposefully makes a show of immigration enforcement, and wears deportations as a badge of honor. Footage of ICE agents and Cabinet members dressed in military clothes is routinely posted on official social media, as well as “memes” making a mockery of immigrants and deportations

The president does not aim to change the current restrictive immigration system, either. Contra Obama, his ask to Congress is not immigration reform, but more money to further ramp up deportations and continue the deportations parade.

The “mass deportations” agenda galvanizes a voter base that buys into the “existential threat” rhetoric. Importantly, through the display of massive government power made possible by detentions and deportations, the administration is able to create a sense of “emergency” that’ll persuade Americans to turn a blind eye to (or support) giving the executive more power in order to quash that supposed “emergency” — or any other that may come up in the future.

Yes, it’s true that Obama deported record numbers of people. But comparing him to Trump neglects to highlight the key difference with the Trump administration’s approach to enforcement. Obama didn’t celebrate separating families and kicking peaceful people out — he claims to have done it as a means to reform. Trump celebrates deportations and praises sending people to confinement centers abroad. The administration is trying to deport millions because it simply doesn’t want them here and wants more power to kick more of them out.

There is a big difference between these two approaches to immigration enforcement, and those comparing both presidents would do well to understand it.

Agustina Vergara Cid is a Young Voices Contributor. You can follow her on X at @agustinavcid