Trump vs. Obama: Crime Prevention Research Center questions 'distorted' narrative about administration's immigration policy

"Countless news stories have amplified fears that under Trump, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are wildly violating basic rights," said John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. "But the numbers tell a very different story."

Lott first highlighted in a recent article the total number of arrests since Trump's inauguration through the end of November: 595,000 migrants living in the country illegally, a figure he described as "extraordinary." He also noted that 605,000 were deported.

According to Lott, the media often spread incomplete or distorted figures (and sometimes not even, but appeal to generalities such as "many") that have an impact on the image Americans have of ICE's work.

"No federal agency is perfect. In immigration enforcement, as in all law enforcement operations, mistakes will be made," he asserts. "But the media’s lack of perspective on the data, and its refusal to put the numbers in context, is putting a match to an explosive public debate."

Here are the main points he disputes from the mainstream media:

Deaths in ICE custody

As an example of the alteration of the numbers, the expert recalls a viral exchange between White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and a journalist that began with the following question:

"Earlier you were just defending ICE agents ... that they were doing everything correctly. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody last year; 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE. And, uh, Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent. How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?"

On deaths in ICE custody, Lott questions the source of the numbers themselves. "ProPublica and law firms that put together the data on ICE activities don’t provide a breakdown of causes of deaths, which in itself is a warning sign," he notes, also reminding that two deaths in custody occurred in an attack on patrol facilities.

It further notes that the 32 deaths in custody represent a lower number than that of the Obama administration. In his two terms, 56 people died in federal custody. Although there is no "clear" data on the total number of detainees during that period, according to Lott, the Democratic administration reportedly processed some 797,834 individuals. That is to say that Obama recorded one death for every 14,314 detainees and Trump, one every 18,594.

In other words, the Democrat had a reported rate of 0.007% deaths in detention compared to 0.0054% for Trump.

American citizens in detention: 'The error rate under Obama was 3.36 times higher than under Trump'

The president of the Crime Prevention Research Center also calls into question the journalist's other data during the press conference at the White House: the 170 Americans arrested by ICE.

Of that total, 130 citizens were handcuffed for interfering with operations or attacking federal agents. Detentions, therefore, were "justifiable under any reading of the law," Lott assures, noting that the data were provided by "the left-leaning ProPublica."

Of the 40 U.S. citizens detained "accidentally or erroneously," half were detained for more than a day. "Any error is serious, but 40 mistakes out of 595,000 arrests amounts to an error rate of just 0.0067% — roughly one wrongful detention for every 14,925 arrests," Lott says.

In fiscal years 2015 and 2016 alone, with Obama in the Oval Office, ICE recorded 263 wrongful arrests, 54 erroneous jail admissions and four deportations that should not have occurred. The total of 239,645 arrests in that period would mean an error rate of 0.0225%. "About one mistake for every 4,444 arrests," the expert concludes, "Overall, the error rate under Obama was 3.36 times higher than under Trump."

Deported by mistake

While Lott pointed out that in just two years Obama deported four Americans by mistake, he stresses that, in contrast, "Trump made no erroneous deportations through November."

It is worth noting, however, that allegations of wrongly deported citizens have surfaced, but that the government disputes those accounts. In a case earlier this year in which three American minors from two different families were deported, the administration claimed that this was the parents' own decision. The deported mothers reportedly decided to take their children with them. Lawyers for the families rejected this version.

Likewise, there were cases of denunciations of foreigners who claimed to have been deported by mistake. The best known case was that of Ábrego García, a Salvadoran immigrant who was deported to El Salvador. The White House admitted that he had been sent back to his native country in "error," as a court order prevented him from being returned to the Central American nation due to gang threats against his family, but defended that he had committed crimes in the United States and should therefore be removed. The court case remains open.